Boosting Cameroonian local rice production, the only away forward...
2019 seems to be in Cameroon the local rice public awareness year.
In 2017 the country invested CFA183.7 billion (USD 309 850 557) to import 728,443 tons of rice reflecting an increase of 27.9% in value and 18.6% in volume, compared to 2016
On the 28th of February 2019, Cameroon's prime minister instructed his ministers to find and propose immediate solutions to boost local rice production and decrease the import volume. A few months later, on the 5th August 2019, a well-known activist named Bernard Djonga posted online pictures and videos of ''unsold'' locally produced rice stocked in warehouses belonging to SEMRY, a public-owned company in charge of producing rice in the Region. The post went viral as Cameroonians couldn't understand why they are not consuming their own locally produced rice.
The coming out, both of the Government and the Civil Society, raised awareness of some Cameroonians on the existence of local rice. However, Many Cameroonians also surprisingly discovered that the country is in a ubiquitous situation where its local rice seems to be more expensive than imported ones.
Many reasons led us to such a situation, and Agri-Invest efforts have been, under its Rice of Cameroon (RIZICAM) project launched in 2015, to gradually address these issues.
Interviewed by France 24, Our CEO pointed out the main reason that led us to the current situation.
Since 1990, the State-Owned Company SEMRY stopped playing its normal role in the value chain which led
local farmers to continuously face tremendous challenges (outdated agricultural practices, access to quality inputs, market ), resulting in low productivity, and high production cost than their Asian counterparts. Cameroonian farmers yield around 2.5 tons/ ha while the world average is 6 tons/ha.
Despite the high production cost, local farmers in usual cases produce their rice with a net loss of -5,3% of the money invested.
It is therefore vital to provide targeted supports to these farmers in order to boost their productivity, drop the production cost and have competitive local rice for consumers.
AGRI-INVEST seems to be the only private company in Cameroon providing a comprehensive and holistic scheme to small rice farmers and has succeeded in marketing a competitive locally produced rice in the domestic market.
To date, a total of 3200 small farmers have benefited our scheme, enabling them to double their yield to 5tons/ha on average and increase their profitability to 16% on average.
Interestingly, thanks to its competitive advantage, rice produced under AGRI-INVEST scheme is currently distributed by the main rice importers. AGRI-INVEST Model has then made it possible to meet the market requirement of quality and pricing while ensuring continued improved living standards of small farmers.
There is however an urgent need to increase the number of farmers receiving such support in order to have a more important impact at a macro level of the Nation. Reason, why AGRI-INVEST works relentlessly to increase it, 's investment in the RIZICAM Project, with the aim of contributing to fight poverty, ensure food security and empower women by putting women farmers first