“The irrigation we have initiated is a blessing to us as we now have good yields even in the prolonged dry periods,” Jude said.
With assistance from the Grass field Rural Infrastructure and Participatory Development Support Project, GP-DERUDEP, an agriculture support program for farmers in the Northwest region in 2013, the farmers were able to construct small canals through which water is channeled to their cultivating fields. Some built small water storage tanks in their farms from where water is pulled for irrigation during prolonged droughts.
“Under our support to rural infrastructure-agricultural development and capacity building scheme, we helped farmers with climate adaptation projects in drought-hit areas,” said Benjamin Fobuzo head of project executing unit GP- DERUDEP.
Youths watering their vegetable farm with stored stream water in Santa, Northwest of Cameroon
The irrigation project, he said, has gone a long way to improving the production and socio-economic environment of the main vegetable production basins in the Northwest.
The project GP-DERUDEP, officials say, was funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in 2013, to help finance the second phase of the Grassfield Rural Infrastructure and Participatory Development Support Project.
“We are happy the irrigation program is improving agricultural production and incomes of beneficiary communities,” says Gregory Muluh Ngu, coordinator of GP- DERUDEP.
The building, monitoring and maintenance of the water catchments and small dams in some cases is carried out by the community, and the system provides farmers in the area access to water all-year-around even as droughts caused by climate change devastate many other areas of the country.
The irrigation systems serve around 139,000 farmers and 84,600 agricultural laborers in the two district of Santa and Akum, who use it to grow assorted vegetables. With rain-fed agriculture becoming increasingly unreliable, support to a swelling number of farmers becomes evident, according to agriculture officials in the Northwest region.
Farmer pulls water from storage tank for irrigation in tomatoes farm
“Supporting irrigation has become crucial in drought-hit areas in the Northwest as rain-fed agriculture becomes increasingly unreliable. Replicating initiatives like these in other parts affected by drought will significantly boost food production in the country,” says Nutoto Godfrey, Regional Delegate of Agriculture and Rural Development Northwest.
These farmers, preponderantly women have the unique advantage of growing a variety of vegetable crops during the off-season (dry season), producing over five harvests in a year, which is supplied throughout the Northwest region and other big markets in the country thanks to the irrigation schemes, Nutoto said.
Cameroon's Northwest region has a population of 1,850,000 and a poverty rate of 51% and is home to 13% of the total number of the rural poor in the country, according to government statistics.
The irrigation projects have succeeded to bridge the yield gap of many food items and dramatically increased vegetable production at smallholder farm levels from hitherto less than 10% during the dry season to over 90 % currently. Growing maize and vegetables like huckleberry, cucumbers, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, okro, etc., is now an all-year-round business for these farmers resulting in increased income and better-living conditions, officials of the Northwest regional delegation of Agriculture said.
Short season crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peppers, lettuce and parsley and fruits like watermelons, are now available throughout the year regardless of the season, ushering a new era in the agricultural history of the North West region in particular, and Cameroon in general, the regional delegate for agriculture told InfoCongo.
On average smallholder farmers cultivate about 200m2 farm size irrespective of prolonged droughts.
The irrigation development program is not only helping to improve agricultural production and the incomes of the farmers but more importantly narrow considerably the food supplies void in the main cities nationwide primarily during the dry season.
“I now produce enough tomatoes for our local markets and bigger markets in Douala and Yaoundé even in the dry season,” says Jude Awantung
It is estimated to have raised annual vegetable production by about 37,000 tons as well as a yearly increase in income per producer from CFAF 250,000 (USD$500) in 2013 to CFAF 357,910 (USD$700) in 2016.
