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Cameroon too much oil was bad news for cocoa

New African, Oct 2003 by Musa, Tansa

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Emerging from the August meeting, farmers welcomed the government's decision to supply insecticides and finance. But they said the assistance package was too small and coming too late to convince many of them to shift from food production to cocoa and coffee.

"We thank the minister, but we think that the government ought to do more," said Pierre Nzeffa, president of the union of coffee and cocoa producers of the West province.

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To adequately deal with the situation and raise production and quality, the farmers urged the authorities to immediately set up a rural credit fund which will pay special attention to cocoa and coffee farmers, to construct more farm-to-market roads and maintain existing ones, to provide high quality seeds to farmers, help in the organisation of farmers into professional groups and cooperatives, and to promote local transformation and consumption while at the same time erecting barriers to protect it from imports.

Responding to the farmers' request, the agriculture minister Augustin Kodock admitted that their demands were real but regretted that with the country still struggling economically, it would be difficult to meet all their needs. But he pledged that the authorities would "do something really serious" to revive the cocoa and coffee sectors.

He said the government's ambition was to raise cocoa production to 200,000 tonnes, robusta coffee to 120,000 and arabica coffee to 30,000 tonnes by 2010.

Copyright International Communications Oct 2003
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Cameroon too much oil was bad news for cocoa

New African, Oct 2003 by Musa, Tansa

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