Food Security: Overcoming Stumbling Blocks

Involving and engaging youths can reduce unemployment, crime, delinquency and extremism, while creating opportunities to generate income.

Little or no farm equipments, use of local implements, poor farm-to-market roads, limited access to subsidies and fertilisers and pesticides, environmental challenges, pose a great challenge to food productivity and the country’s drive to modern agriculture. These challenges were enumerated by farmers and actors in the processing sector during the Mini Agro-pastoral Show in Douala December 16-17 that attracted farmers from all over the Littoral Region.

As a part of measures to overcome the hurdles, wheelbarrows, pesticides, watering cans and sacks of fertilisers, machetes, rain boats, including other equipments were handed to some Common Initiative Groups and to individual farmers as prizes for best production at the end of the show in Bepanda. Officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development call the attention of beneficiaries to the fact that government is with them and doing everything possible to enhance their production capacity.

The agricultural sector, according to speeches made during the event, is a veritable backbone for economic growth. Therefore involving and engaging youths can reduce unemployment, crime, delinquency and extremism, while creating opportunities for young people to enhance food security and generate income...