Field Visit (February/March 2011)

[Tamara]

 

The purpose of the visit was to ascertain the changes to the farming conditions since the survey undertaken in October 2008. We wanted to know whether our initial analysis was still valid.

 

In summary, there has been additional funding and development in the region due to the UNVDA (Upper Nun Valley Development Authority - the Cameroon Government rice development corporation). The UNVDA has started rehabilitating the 2552 hectares of the developed farms, and providing loans to the farmers (in the forms of fertilizers), providing a market to the farmers (by buying the unprocessed rice) and providing increased training to the farmers.

 

A survey of the farming groups is summarized below:

• None of the recipient groups benefited from the additional training (with none of the groups having received training since the original survey)
• All the farming groups have benefited from the fertilizer loans, however as these are loans it has not impacted the problem faced by farmers of not being able to afford adequate quantities of fertilizers
• 2 of the 3 farming groups visited, continued to have problems with irrigation (as they are farming in the undeveloped farms and as such do not benefit from the rehabilitation efforts of the UNVDA) and this is significantly impacted the yields
• The new seeds provided by the UNVDA has mixed results, due to the issues experienced with irrigation. The new seeds actually under perform in situations where irrigation is poor

 

Therefore we concluded that our initial analysis is still valid, and that the problems we saw in the field and documented, are still problems faced by the farmers.

 

Please revert with your comments - we are interested in your observations of current conditions in the cultivation of rice in Ngoketunjia.