Members of the National Orientation and Steering Committee met in their eighth session in Yaounde on march 29,2016.
The Agropole Programme piloted by the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, will this 2016 extend its activities to the North West Region. The region is the breadbasket for honey production, says the National Coordinator of the Programme, Adrian Ngo’o Bitomo.
This explains why plans are underway to launch a « Beekeeping Agropole, » he stated in his 2016 action plan. It will be the first agropole the North West since the programme went operational in 2012. Officials indicate that focus in 2016 will be on non-forestry products. Cameroon has potentials and international reputation for non-forestry products like Okok/Eru. Managers of the Agropole Programme want to launch one in any of the areas where production is high. The plan is well advanced, sources say.
Another product that Cameroon prides itself in the international market is wood, with exports growing exponentially. This notwithstanding, stakeholders in the sector cannot boast of any exposure setting worthy of a storefront. This is the reason for which a timber cluster agropole programme is in the pipeline.
Chairing discussions at the eighth session of the National Orientation and Steering Committee of the programme in Yaounde, yesterday, March 29, 2016, the Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Yaouba Abdoulaye, disclosed that 30 Agropole Programmes have been launched since 2012. 2016 is therefore the midpoint for the programme that ends in 2020. The programme coordination unit is therefore challenged to remain relevant in inputs to the initiative that seeks to change the livelihoods of Cameroonians, scale up the country’s Balance of Trade, promote the socio-economic absorption of youth and develop credible agriculture.
Statutory members of the committee, who are all Secretaries General of Ministries, discussed the follow-up of already launched porgrammes, adopted the 2016 plan of activities and budget as well as endorsed reports of the seventh session that held on May 18, 2015.
