Over 3000 Farmers Exhibit At Agro-Pastoral Show

Over 3000 farmers from the six divisions of the South West Region, December 19-2, at the Omnisport Stadium Buea, exhibited their best produce from this year’s farming season. 
By Regina Fonjia Leke
The event was organised under the patronage of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and coordinated by the Sub-Regional Delegation of Agriculture and Rural Development for the Southwest in Buea. 
Farm yields including cassava, plantains, yams, cocoyams, potatoes, vegetables of extra weight and sizes including animals were displayed and Buea residents thronged into the stadium to catch a glimpse of amazing crops such as a cassava tuber measuring more than two metres long. 
The Sub-Regional Delegate of Agriculture, Elame Germain, said every crop had a prize and some crops had up to twelve prizes such as Irish potato and cassava. 
Elame said the reason for giving as many as twelve prizes for such a crop as Irish potato was to encourage other farmers in the South West to cultivate the crop which is cultivated mostly by farmers in the Alou Sub-division, Lebialem Division. 
Elame equally explained that the South West is blessed with extreme and moderate climate permitting any crop that grows in Cameroon to grow in the region. 
“This explains why the South West agro-pastoral show always tops other shows because there is always a wide variety of crop and animal present,” Elame said. 
This was confirmed by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Essimi Menye, who presided over the event. 
He said he was very delighted with what he saw. 
Essimi said the South West remains the breadbasket of the nation and lauded farmers who have taken the initiative of increasing the value of their farm outputs through transformation. 
He congratulated the efforts of a farmer who transformed pepper into pepper cubes/bottled liquid pepper ready for exportation. 
The Minister used the occasion to announce the coming of a project dubbed PIDMA project sponsored by the World Bank to support the transformation of cassava and maize into flour so as to stop the importation of flour into Cameroon.
In total, prizes worth over 12 million frs cfa was handed to farmers with the most outstanding yields. 
Farmers with best crops received prices ranging from farm tools including wheelbarrows, push-trucks, watering cans, cutlasses to farm inputs including herbicides, pesticides to fight disease in crop. 
Farmers with the best animals also received prices including feed for pigs, chicken. 
A Buea-based farmer, Anemboh Peter, who won prizes for different crops and animals including plantains, tomatoes, vegetables, ducks and guinea pigs, said he was so happy given that the farm inputs will facilitate his farm activity next year. 
Anemboh said his 2013 farming season was stress-free because he used all the farm inputs including fungicides, herbicides, feed for his animal he won from the last edition of the agro-pastoral show.
Farmers told The Green Vision that the agric-pastoral show gives them the opportunity to show off what they have been able to produce throughout the year.
“I kept my best cassava product to display it at the show because this is what makes me fulfilled as a farmer,” Lucas Njock, a farmer from Bimbia said. 
Another farmer explained that the agric-pastoral show gives farmers the opportunity to exchange ideas on the planting of different crops.
“Last year I came for the agric-show just with makabo coco, but I met a farmer who brought Chinese yam and won a prize for it. I had never seen Chinese yam before and I did not even know it could grow in the Muyuka Sub-division. I bought some seeds of the Chinese yams and planted in my farm and today I brought them for the show,” said Gabriel Amin.