From Njingang Godwin in
Kumba
Local buying
agents in Cameroon will hence forth put on badges when carrying out their
activity of buying cocoa from farmers. The move was arrived at recently as a
measure to eliminate mischievous agents who gallivant and defraud helpless
cocoa farmers with fake scales.
This information
was made available to the press in Kumba, Wednesday July 24, during a two day
workshop organized by the National Cocoa and Coffee Board, NCCB and the Inter-professional
Council for Cocoa and Coffee, CICC. Holding at the Kumba city banquet hall, the
workshop grouped representatives of farmers’ cooperatives in the South West
region.
While opening
the workshop, the first assistant senior divisional officer for Meme, Epolewane
Veckline thanked the organizers for choosing Meme to host the timely meeting,
at a point in time when farmers are preparing for the harvest season across the
country.
For his part, the
government delegate to the Kumba city council, Ngoh Victor Nkelle saluted the
initiative of NCCB and CICC and affirmed that increasing the scale of cocoa and
coffee production will be a great achievement for the South West and Cameroon
as a whole. He equally noted that FODECC, through the ministry of agriculture
has been able to provide farmers in the region with quality planting seeds to
help eradicate diseases like toxic pest, fungi, etc. While appreciating the
NCCB and CICC for organizing such an enriching workshop, the city council boss
reiterated his desire to assist the institutions when need arises.
According to the
representative of cocoa producers, Musima James Lobe, the South West region tops
the chart in Cameroon, with close to 40% production of cocoa; amounting to between
96,000 tons and 200,000 tons of cocoa in 2013. “240,000 tons to 600,000 tons have
been envisaged for 2018 if only farmers respect the proper methods of drying
the cocoa beans”, James Lobe forecasted. However, the producers’ representative
decried the poor state of farm-to-market roads, inaccessibility of producer
organizations, the lack of money for farmers to acquire land title which can
enable them obtained loans from banks, and the notorious presence of fake
buyers who operate with malevolent scales.
At the end of
the workshop, the following resolutions were arrived at: the need for farmers
to join cooperatives and common initiatives groups; proper sensitization of
farmers on the adequate fermentation of their cocoa; the need for SAMOA ovens
and sunlight to be promoted as drying facilities for cocoa; amongst others.
In addition,
participants generally agreed that NCCB should post produce inspectors to
control cocoa quality at the main stores of the cooperatives before they are
transported to Douala. Also, farmers’ field school training was advanced to be
obligatory to all producers in order to meet the 2020 exigencies by the European
Union.
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