Forest Garden Takes Root In 4 Regions

Recent activities championed by ERuDeF show that more farmers in the South West, North West, West and Littoral Regions are enthusiastic about the new Forest Garden Model to guarantee high yields and constant incomes throughout the year.

ERuDeF’s focus this year is to implant agroforestry technologies to increase soil fertility with the use of natural fertilizers from tree species such as Acacia, Leuceana, Calliandra and Prunus africana.

By Immaculate Mkong

“In order to implement this technology successfully, we ought to put both the old and the new farming groups in the same position and the starting point for all the groups is 2015,” says Payong Marquise, ERuDeF Coordinator of Agroforestry in West and Littoral Regions.

In the month of March, the ERuDeF agroforestry team spent a fortnight identifying over 10 farms in the West and Littoral Regions where Forest Garden Model would be implemented. According to Payong, farmers expressed satisfaction with the advent of the Forest Garden Model and were anxious to see its outcome.

The Forest Garden Model will supplement alley cropping, live fencing, and bee farming amongst others and boost farmers’ incomes throughout the year through the inclusion of fruit trees, non-timber forest products, (NTFPs) and timber species on farms.

“In this system, we separate a one-hectare farm into four layers where vegetables cover the first layer, food crops and nitrogen-fixing trees cover the second layer, fruit trees take the next layer and NTFPs and timber species cover the forth layer. With this, farmers would have a constant flow of income throughout the year instead of at a particular period of the year as they do now. Different fruits are produced at different periods, and therefore there will be no-off season for farmers practicing the “Forest Garden System,” says Payong.

Before now, attention was mostly focused on the alley cropping technology; which is planting trees of Acacia, Leuceana and Calliandra species in double rows after every 5 metres in a farmland. The main aim of this technology is to improve the soil fertility of the poor resource farmers. These tree species are used because they are multipurpose and fast growing. The most important aspect of these trees is their natural fertilizing properties; they are nitrogen fixing trees which boost soils to their optimum level of fertility. This technology has been implemented in over 200 communities in the South West, North West, West and Littoral Regions of Cameroon.

In the Northwest Region, the following farming groups; Realization, Huzbanmen, Moh, Christian Men Fellowship, Christian Women Fellowship, Waintoh, Atim and Progressive located in Wum, Nkambe, Ndop, Laikom, Kulabei and Bongom respectively, readily accepted the Forest Garden System.

Atim Moses of the Atim Farming Group in Kulabei (Momo Division) assured ERuDeF’s Northwest Agroforestry Coordinator, Jumbam Blaise, that they would embrace the practice in order to improve not only their family situation, but that of the community.

Atim said he would put more than 5 hectares of land under the Forest Garden Model.