From research to farmer enterprise development in Cameroon : case study of kola nuts

Recent research conducted by ICRAF and collaborators has demonstrated a strong demand for Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in the humid forest areas of Cameroon. These NTFPs include: Cola nitida, Ricinodendron heudelotii, Gnetum africanum and Irvingia spp. However, farmers find it difficult to achieve good returns from these products, even with viable national, regional and international markets for the products. In response to that, ICRAF-AHT (Africa Humid Tropics) is leading a "Farmer Enterprise Development" project aimed at empowering rural households through the development of appropriate marketing strategies that can be used for a range of products. The innovative approach combines training and development of farmer entrepreneurial skills, the development of NTFPs markets through adding value and developing appropriate technologies to improve product quality, harvesting, storage, processing and packaging. The approach is based on research, development of appropriate technologies, partnerships and farmers' group -enterprise development. This paper looks at the importance of biophysical and market research in order to develop a holistic enterprise development strategy using kola nut as a case study. Results show that there are clear limitations to significantly increasing income from kola nuts business in Cameroon: limited market access, low resource regeneration, limited available capital, and lack of appropriate processing technology. Results also show that kola weevils (Balanogastris kolae & Saphrorhinus spp.), attacking the nuts both prior to harvest and during storage, are the major problem faced by kola producers, wholesalers, retailers and even consumers. Economic simulations have demonstrated that reducing post-harvest losses to 5% and increasing production by 5% could increase the profitability of the kola nut business by 17%. The efficiency of various weevil control methods as used by farmers is assessed in on-farm trials to provide appropriate control approaches. Meanwhile, group- marketing approaches are also evaluated with farmer groups in the Northwest province of Cameroon and links between kola producers and traders are established

Impacts of participatory tree domestication on farmer livelihoods in West and Central Africa

Research on participatory domestication of indigenous trees in West and Central Africa started in 1996 with the objectives of increasing incomes of rural communities and improving their livelihoods by cultivating indigenous trees and developing strategies for marketing the produce. Though the study was conducted in Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, the present paper only presents data from Cameroon. In Cameroon, the original pilot nurseries have subsequently developed and grown to become Rural Resource Centres providing training in a wide range of skills as well as being the focal points for the diffusion of innovations. Some 200 village nurseries are now active and have become on-farm enterprises producing planting material both for local use and for marketing. Over the years, rural communities have increasingly reported improvements in their livelihoods, diet, health, income generation which have transformed their lives and given them encouragement for a better future. Livelihood surveys conducted in 2008 involved 298 farmers from 15 communities. Interestingly, one of the impacts has been that some young people have chosen to stay in their villages rather than to seek offfarm employment in local towns. Since 2008, tree domestication in Cameroon has also been integrated in a wider rural development programme in the West and North-West Regions, based on the concepts of multifunctional agriculture. This integrated approach to meeting the needs of poor rural communities is further empowering smallholder farmers to develop superior cultivars of indigenous fruits and nut trees and to produce planting stock of leguminous trees and shrubs for soil fertility replenishment. It has also encouraged entrepreneurism in the processing of agricultural products as well as tree products, and stimulated the development of markets for agroforestry tree products. Currently, over 6000 farmers from around 300 communities are engaged in this integrated rural development programme. This has been achieved by enhancing the capacity of technicians from NGOs, extension services and community-based organizations in the skills needed for tree domestication, agroforestry and value-addition at the community level

Coupled forest zoning and agricultural intervention yields conflicting outcomes for tropical forest conservation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Open Access Journal; Published online: 13 May 2022Agricultural intensification and forest conservation are often seen as incompatible. Agricultural interventions can help boost food security for poor rural communities but in certain cases can exacerbate deforestation, known as the rebound effect. We tested whether coupling agricultural interventions with participatory forest zoning could improve food security and promote forest conservation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Simple agricultural interventions led to a >60% increase in cassava yields and a spill-over effect of improved cassava variety uptake in non-intervention zones. Household surveys conducted at the end of the 8 year project implementation period revealed that households that received agricultural interventions had more favorable attitudes toward forest zoning and conservation. The surveys also showed that farmers in the intervention domain practiced less land-intensive field and fallow management strategies compared to those practiced in the non-intervention domain. However, an 18 year time series analysis of Landsat satellite data revealed that agricultural expansion persisted in areas both with and without intervention assistance, and there is risk of a rebound effect. Approximately 70% of the tree cover loss that occurred outside of the agricultural areas was located within a 3 km buffer zone surrounding the outermost edges of the agricultural areas, which suggested that the majority of tree cover loss was caused by agricultural expansion. Within that 3 km buffer, average annual tree cover loss during the post-intervention period was higher in the intervention domain compared to the non-intervention domain (0.17% yr−1 compared to 0.11% yr−1 respectively, p < 0.001), suggesting risk of a rebound effect. The disconnection between household perceptions of zoning adherence and actual behavior indicates the importance of strengthening governance structures for community-based monitoring and enforcement