Production

Boosting crop production is a major strategy of ensuring food security, reducing importation and poverty, increasing employment and enhancing a country’s economy. This entails putting together lots of factors which will include finance, equipment, trainings, infrastructures and institutions to manage the above mentioned factors. PROFALCAM (institution/platform) established to coordinate farmers of cassava, sweet potatoes, plantain, maize, sorghum and wheat in Cameroon in partnership with the government have designed a production strategy to help farmers increase productivity with a yearly target ranging from 194 000 tons in 2023 to 3 575 490 tons in 2030.

Considering PROFALCAM’s vision to produce good quality Cameroonian flour, in a competitive, profitable and sustainable way, to satisfy national needs and constitute a security stock with the opportunity to export the surplus production to neighboring countries of Cameroon, the crop production department has put in place the following strategy to meet the organization’s production target:

1. Recovery of post-harvest losses: Post-harvest losses in Cameroon are estimated on average at 35% of expected production in the various production areas. Crop losses in 2019 assessment amounted up to 5, 133,221tons. Thus an attempt in reducing post harvest losses through timely purchasing and stable prices by PROFALCAM will motivate farmers and encourage them to increase their farm sizes increasing production.
2. The development of medium farms (elite): To cover national needs in raw material, the Platform plans to supplement post-harvest loss recovery products with raw material from medium-sized farms. These farms are characterized by their size, i.e. at least 20 ha per farm for the main cereals (maize, millet/sorghum) and 10 hectares for products with high water content (cassava, sweet potato, plantain). This criterion is not applied to wheat, due to its status as a niche product. The minimum number of elites per site is 20. However, this number will change over time due to spillover effects or training. Elite plantations will have a strong impact on small producers and will constitute privileged sites for the development of pulp and aggregate production units. The Platform will cover 277 production sites by 2030, for a total of nearly 10 000 elites.

• Development of agro industries or “clusters”: clusters include a large farm or several medium-sized farms in a specific basin are conducted in order to supply an agro-industry. Generally, this agro-industry covers a radius of 100 km around the plantation(s). The cluster model opens opportunities for the development of an inclusive business model that brings together several independent multi-actors, including: investors, individuals, GICS, cooperatives and SME for the realization of a final particular product. The cluster system makes it possible to record a surplus of marketable production for exportation. Its impact is direct and positive on the prices of flour on the market, since the cluster approach reduces transport costs of raw materials, promotes professionalization and facilitates partnerships between promoters and with third parties.

ONGOING ACTIVITIES

1. Trainings: PROFALCAM has structured a training plan including training calendar and topics depending on farmers need and research carried out in the field. These trainings ensure that farmers stay aware of fast moving developments in technology, science, agri-business management, and other crop production skills and operations which will ensure success in agriculture. The results of impacting farmers with different farming methods and techniques of agricultural production increases their efficiency and thus success in agriculture.
2. Facilitating access to information for farmers: Since Knowledge is power and information is liberating, PROFALCAM yearns to give promoters quality information and link them up with suppliers (pesticides, fertilizer, soil testing labs etc.) to boost up crop production.
3. Facilitating access to seeds: To cope with the many constraints linked to the provision of the large quantities of certified seeds required, it is essential to develop an industrial production system for improved plant material guaranteeing the availability in time, in quantity and in quality in the production basins.

To this end, the Platform plans to facilitate the acquisition of equipment for the development of a laboratory belonging to the promoters, which will allow the rapid multiplication of cassava, sweet potato and plantain seeds from IRAD and the IITA.

At the level of the various production basins, greenhouses will be built to allow the recovery of plants from the laboratory.

After the stay in the greenhouses, the plants will be transferred to the seed companies/seed producers for the multiplication of the certified seeds which will be distributed to the producers at the start of the campaigns according to the forecast needs.

1. Youths and the strategy of independent seed system: Seeds and seedling multiplication is a specialized trade in agriculture that needs training and strict respect of production itinerary. Youths especially those with some level of education from Secondary School to University fit squarely. Composite and hybrid cereals, PIF for plantains, cutting and vines for roots and tubers; greenhouse hardening techniques for plantain and cassava plantlets are areas youths shall get involved.

Grouped in 5 to 10 members as a CIG or Simplified Cooperative, these youths(women and men) shall operate in a given council area to produce principally for the ware crop producers of PROFALCAM in that area.

Their business plan shall contain a supervision cost spread monthly and paid to each member of the group.

1. Facilitating access to financing for input acquisition and production equipment: In order to meet up with the production demands, farmers need agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides as well as production equipment which are relatively expensive.

To this end PROFALCAM facilitate promoters’ access to Loans from financial institute such as PeFi SA. (People finance SA).

PROFALCAM has also signed a contract with ELESYST whose main objective is to facilitate acquisition of loans for the financing of the PLATFORM’s activities.

This strategy is geared towards reducing poverty in rural areas through increased productivity through the intensification of agro-industrial activities and the modernization of farms driven by demand from agro-food industries.