Organic or inorganic? Solving the problems of agriculture in the developing world

A case study of rice farming in Cameroon

Rice is the main cash crop in the Ngoketunjia Division in the North West Region of Cameroon. As such people rely on the sale of rice for basic necessities such as school fees and medicines. So when one of the women's groups approached us and talked to us about the problems with their rice farms, we were compelled to investigate.

When we investigated we found that yields on the farms were extremely low. For 2007, only 2% of farms produced yields of the expected level of 6 tonnes/ht or above. In fact half of the farms surveyed had yields of less than 3 tonnes/hectare.

So we asked the farmers to explain their problems. Over 49% of farmers stated that they could not afford or needed assistance with fertilizers. Based on field studies the recommended volume of fertilizer to be applied is 250-300 kg/hectare of a combination of N-P-K and UREA. For 2007, 54% of our surveyed farms had less than 150 kg/hectare of fertilizer input.

Apart from fertilizers we found that the farmers face problems of lack of development in terms of irrigation, pest control and weed control. The combination of these factors destroy harvests.

So, we have built a consortium of 6 partners who will work together with the farmers to try to find sustainable solutions to these problems. The partners are LUKMEF, Forest and Agro Forestry Promoters (FAP), Partners for Community Development Initiative (PCDI), Upper Nun Valley Development Authority (UNVDA), MEUKOH Bamunka Development Union(MEDU) and we are pleased to welcome the Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP) to Africa and to Cameroon.

Our aim is to empower the individual farmers as a means of developing the community.

Visit our website for more information - http://www.ndop-rice.ning.com.

Should we adopt an organic solution? Leave your comment on our website.

Although Cameroon is a net importer of rice (in 2007 the Cameroon spent 80 billion francs importing rice), Cameroon still exports rice to the neighbouring central Africa countries including Chad, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

A bag of rice in Ngoketunjia has varied from 22,000 CFA Francs to 18,000 CFA Francs (USD 44-36) for a 100 kg bag of unhauled rice. Are you based in Africa? How important is rice to your community and what is the price of rice in your community? Leave your comment on our website.