Agriculture, Rural Development : Wide-ranging Activities In View For 2023

The execution rate of the Agriculture Infrastructure and Value Chain Development Project (AIVDP) based in the South West Region and designed to run from 2019 to 2024 has scored a 45 per cent achievement rate so far. The AIVDP was created to operate under the South West Development Authority within the ambit of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER). It has the Islamic Development Bank as a financing partner aiming to improve on living conditions in the agro-production basin of the South West Region. Cameroon’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gabriel Mbairobe, chaired the AIVDP’s 6th Steering Committee meeting last 28 March, 2023 in Buea. 
To whip the AIVDP horse for greater results, the project received FCFA 200,725,590 worth of office movables including two double cabin pick-ups, 12 Yamaha bikes, and office equipment. The facilities would enable the project to construct 30 village banks for FCFA 300 million and engage a credit line of FCFA 2.1 billion for farmers to mechanise their production. Minister Mbairobe officiated the handing over of the equipment to AIVDP in Buea last Tuesday. The Minister explained that the project had to construct or rehabilitate 290km of rural roads, to deliver 32 water supply schemes, and to provide process-units for cocoa, oil palms and cassava to farmer-beneficiaries. He announced a renewed partnership with the South West Association of Village Barns, a micro finance component, to grant equipment loans to farmers. 
The reason for this new engagement with the SWAVIB micro-credit scheme was explained by AIVDP Coordinator, Dr. Besong Ntui Ogork, a rural development environmentalist. He highlighted that it was a means of assisting the farmers out of the difficulties of obtaining loans from commercial banks with bottlenecks of collaterals.  The SWAVIB, which was already a component under the South West Development Authority, had created 55 rural banks. It would be revived to expand its network taking the number to 85 this tim...