Financing Agriculture : Farmers Hold Parley With Project Managers, Bankers

The National Confederation of Cameroon Cooperatives and Agro-pastoral Federations, CONACFAC on February 9, 2021 met development partners in Yaounde to find solutions to farmers’ challenges such as project writing and financing. According to CONACFAC President, Mbialeu Jean-Marie Noel, many farmers’ organisations are still unaware of the many agricultural and livestock projects financed by government from which they can draw enormous benefits. 
The forum, the first of its kind since CONACFAC was founded in 2010, was therefore an opportunity for farmer leaders to listen and discuss with national coordinators of these projects, Mbialeu said. In all, coordinators of 15 State-sponsored agricultural and livestock projects addressed the farmers; while representatives of eight banks explained the financing opportunities farmers could source. Meanwhile, farmer’s representatives will meet in a year’s time to evaluate the gains from the 2021 forum with development partners. 
Founded in 2010, CONACFAC now boasts over 300 farmers’organisations in eight of Cameroon’s 10 regions. It has a membership of 50,000 small-scale farmers who produce about 8,000 metric tonnes of coffee and 35,000 metric tonnes of cocoa annually; in addition to food crops, Mbialeu disclosed. “We expect that after the forum, farmer leaders will take advantage of the project financing opportunities presented to them ...