CI-NEWS

SW gets new project to enhance inclusive growth through agriculture.

2020-03-23

No: 478

SW gets new project to enhance inclusive growth through agriculture.

A new project aimed at contributing to inclusive growth in the South West region through enhanced agricultural productivity and value chain development has been launched.

The project, dubbed AIVDP, was launched in Buea on March 11, 2020 by Mr. Daniel Ekolle, Inspector General in Charge of services at the Governor’s Office who represented the Governor of the region.

Speaking at the occasion, Ekolle stated that the project is focused on exploiting the agricultural sector to generate income and create jobs for the rural population particularly for the youth and women.

Other achievements envisioned for the project include: increasing income of small holder and agriculture service providers; improving access of rural population to basic social/public infrastructure such as water, sanitation, education and health; facilitating the development of rural enterprises and institutions involved in agricultural production and crop value chain development; and to enhance the capacity of cooperatives in undertaking rural development projects.

In presenting the technical aspect of the project, the regional project coordinator, Dr. Besong Ntui Ogork, revealed that the project which is expected to span for a period of five years will be centred on developing the value chain of cocoa, oil palm, rice and cassava through improved production, processing/transformation techniques as well as organized marketing channels. Additional crops like plantain, groundnuts, potatoes and citrus will also be involved with the intention of protecting farmers from market and climate fluctuations.

Agriculture and social infrastructure will also be set up as part of the project to facilitate the transportation of farm inputs and produce. The AIVDP has been structured in to five different components: Value addition and Market access, Agriculture productivity enhancement, Basic Social infrastructure and services, capacity building and institutional development and project management and coordination. These sectors have been set up to ensure the smooth realization of project objectives.

This project is designed to cover nine basins in the region: the Bamenda-Mamfe-Ekok, the Kumba-Mamfe, the Mutengene-Kumba, the Mutengene-Idenau, the Loum-Tombel-Kumba-Mundemba and the isolated rice and potatoes production basins of Akwaya and Nkongle respectively.

The AIVDP is co-sponsored by the state of Cameroon and the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) with the former contributing seven per cent of the total budget. The loan and grant agreement by these two institutions happens to be in consonance with the overall policy of improving on the livelihoods of the rural population and stimulating economic and social growth for better living conditions.

The governor’s representative, while addressing the public, praised the efforts of the Head of State in making way for such an initiative in the country. It should be noted that this funding has been on ground since 9 April, 2019 and was launched at the national level in Yaounde on 12 December 2019 together with three other Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) funded projects by the Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development.

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SW gets new project to enhance inclusive growth through agriculture.