Livestock & Fisheries: Conspicuous Progress Recorded In All Domains

The activities of the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries (MINEPIA) for the past seven years were guided by directives of the Head of State geared towards guaranteeing nationwide food security and rural development.

These include the guidelines dished out by President Paul Biya at the 2011 Agropastoral Show in Ebolowa, the Three-Year Emergency Plan for the Acceleration of Economic Growth (PLANUT) and the Emergency Response Plan for the populations of the Far North and North regions.

In strict implementation of the said directives which for the most part, constituted the mission of MINEPIA, the country recorded palpable improvement in production of meat, chicken, fish, milk, eggs and other products in both quantity and quality and promoting job creation.

Implemented following the provisions of the law guiding the execution of the national budget, MINEPIA grouped its activities in four programmes; the Programme of Development of Animal Productions and Industries, the programme for improving sanitary coverage of livestock and the fight against animal diseases, the Fisheries Production Development Programme and the Governance and Institutional Support programme in the livestock, fisheries and animal industries sub-sector.

Statistics from MINEPIA indicate that the implementation of these programmes yielded fruits, given the upward trend in the production amid security issues in the northern and eastern regions that have been hampering socio- economic development. The numbers of the main livestock such as cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and poultry increased over the 2011-2017 period.

Cattle numbers increased at an average of eight per cent per year. The numbers grew from 5.08 million heads in 2011 to 7.9 million in 2017, an increase of 57 per cent over the period. As for sheep, there was a 17 per cent increase in the number of sheepfrom 2.9 million heads in 2011 to 3.4 million in 2017.

Goats recorded an average growth of 1.1 per cent annually, taking their numbers from 6, 05 million to 6, 4 million. Swine and poultry grew at an annual rate of 4.6 per cent and 4.7 per cent respectively, representing an increase in pigs from 2.8 million to 3.6 million heads and poult...