The cocoa as well as the coffee tree forms a basis of the Cameroonian economy. But an economic crisis that hit Cameroon in the end of the 1980s has led to abandonment of cocoa plantations or difficulties in managing them. Consequently, productivity and production declined, which had a strong impact on the economic, social and environmental parameters.
The efforts of producers to plant cacao trees in savannah experience difficulties due to the lack of appropriate technologies (i.e., adapted plant material, crop management and lack of suitable culture systems), the low level of technical leadership and the absence of a coherent funding policy for agricultural activities.
The project, submitted by Agence Nationale d'Appui au Développement Forestier (ANAFOR), Fédération des Unions des producteurs de cacaou du Mbam (FUPROCAM) and Institut de la Recherche Agricole pour le Développement (IRAD) aims to contribute to the fight against poverty by improving the farmers' livelihoods through perennial cocoa systems (multispecies) in the moist savannah of the Mbam region in Cameroon.
The project aims at the creation of 1668.9 ha of cocoa plantations in mixed culture. Furthermore, the project is going to facilitate access to land rights for the producers, help improve the technical leadership and ensure the dissemination of improved planting materials and technical references relevant to the moist savannah area. The methodological approach of the project is characterised by a strong involvement of the community in all project phases (i.e., participatory planning, participatory implementation and participatory monitoring and evaluation).
Multi-species forests shelter local wildlife and play an important role in ex-situ conservation of forest resources. Furthermore, they contain large quantities of forest carbon. Because of the specific planting method applied, the cocoa trees need less chemical fertilisers. Soil fertility is enhanced by falling leaves and other biomass whose continuous degradation contributes to the conservation of soil biodiversity.
The recent activity of intensification and diversification in cocoa farms in southern Cameroon strengthens the socio-economic and environmental role that cocoa plays. It also contributes to reducing the pressure on forests adjacent to the savannas which were previously considered a marginal zone of the cocoa sector.
The project will thus allow the development of multi-species cocoa forest plantations responding to the economic, social and environmental concerns of the rural population of Mbam.