Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa

Rural Voices of Youth in Enhancing Agricultural Research for Development in Cameroon

By:NTIOKAM Divine, CR YPARD-Cameroon/

NGOUAMBE Nestor, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development/YPARD-Cameroon

DEFINITION of Rural Youth/ Communities • Agricultural Research for

Development(ARD) is a process through which marginalized youth in this case will study and apply in the field of farming to ensure proper output

• About 70% of Food production in Cameroon is assure by small scale farmers where youths and women contribute to about 60% (Ngouambé, 2013)

ARD Objectives :

• Increasing scientific research;

• Reduce youth unemployment;

• Increase in output;

• Reduce Poverty and Food insecurity;

• Etc…

ARD Contribution(1/2):

ARD seeks to feed into the following processes and support the End Poverty Campaign :

The national, regional and global consultations on the post-2015 agenda;

The report of the UN Secretary General to the UN General Assembly;

The UN General Assembly in September 2013;

ARD Contribution (2/2)

The intergovernmental process after the 2013 UN General Assembly.

• ARD will last for the lifetime of the post-2015 consultation process ….

• and will also develop an engaged constituency to build global accountability for the next development agenda.

The MY World survey is being disseminated across the following channels (1/2):

1. ONLINE:- Through the interactive web platform

www.ypard.net promoted through social media.

- 02 languages available: 6 UN Languages, Indonesian, Thai, Portuguese, Korean, and Albanian.

- Belarusian and Vietnamese work in progress.

The MY World survey is being disseminated across the following channels (2/2):

2. OFFLINE:- Through a grassroots outreach campaign in

partnership with CSOs, faith communities, youth groups, private sector organisations and YPARD country teams (35 members)

3. MOBILE:- Via SMS or IVR (free phone number) in partnership

with mobile software developers and mobile network operators at a country level. ( Still to be launched

ARD PARTNER / Membership OUTREACH

ARD partner system has been set up for organisations , researchers, farmers to be able to register and join the ARD platform and have access to:

ARD tool kit to promote agriculture among young people in their communities;

Access to ARD discussion forum and blogs to share experiences in ARD;

Better understanding on how to Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger by 2015 and beyond;

Etc…

ARD Priority Regions’ in Cameroon:

ARD’s initial focused is in 10 regions to 85% of the country`s poorest people:

1. North West Region : Bamenda2. West Region : Dschang 3. Littoral Region : Douala4. East Region : Bertoua5. Centre Region: Yaounde6. Adamawa Region : Ngaoundere ,Banyo7. South Region : Ebolowa8. North Region : Garoua9. South West Region : Buea,Limbe ,Muyuka, Kumba10. Extreme North: Maroua

ARD RESULTS TO DATE (1/3)

1. Online:Website www.ypard.net live in 02 languages (English and French)

• Over 95 members from Cameroon• Over 5 registered partners (IRAD, Plan, UNDP, Energy Globe)

• FB & Twitter account live and tweets by David Cameron, Queen Rania, Mo Ibrahim and Juanes

• Website hosted/distributed by several organizations including: Scouts, WAGGS, GCAP, ODI, YouthMob Brazil, ONE Campaign, World Youth Alliance, ICMYO, Youth for Habitat, Nike Foundation

ARD RESULTS TO DATE (2/3)• Keys partner already involve in:

1. IRAD: agricultural Research Institute, supporting youth’s Research project

2. Plan Cameroon, supporting minorities and sensitizing youth in environmental education (Plants-for-Planet)

3. UNDP, supporting Youth initiative

4. National Youth Council, for Youth concertation

5. Project for improving Agricultural Competivitiveness (PACA-MINADER), supporting rural youth Projects up to 60 000 US$

ARD RESULTS TO DATE (3/3)2. Mobile: ( Still to be launched)

3. Offline Survey: • North West Region : Bamenda • West Region : Dschang • Littoral Region : Douala• East Region : Bertoua• Centre Region: Yaounde • Adamawa Region : Ngaoundere ,Banyo• South Region : Ebolowa• North Region : Garoua• South West Region : Buea,Limbe ,Muyuka• Far North Region : Maroua

Some Youth Acheivements (1/4)

Food production for food security1.In 2011-2012, 5 youth groups in west-

Cameroon, have produced more than 250tons of maize and 3 500 000 eggs.

2. In 2011 in Douala,3 groups of young men successfully carried out a project for producing 600 pigs (landrace, large white)

Some Youth Acheivements (2/4)

• Rural Youth living in Mbalmayo, Douala and Akonolinga, are involve in the production of compost manure with households wasteto fertilize their crops

Some Youth Acheivements (3/4)

Existence of many youth’s innovative projects in Cameroon

Cassawa processing project:- « Ekiliwidi cooperative » based in South-West,

where 10 young women produce simultaneously 10 tons of gary and 2.5 tons os starches per week using artisanal materials

- Youth innovationfor food security in Cameroon (GIC SAC) produced last year 1750 tons of gary (« Gary show »)

Some Youth Acheivements (4/4)

- 3300 packets Paste made withCassawa (« Miondonini)

19500 botles of juice made With Cassawa (« gary light »)

Some Youth Acheivements (5/5)

• But these innovations needs a lot of support to spread out…

• Modernized materials for their activities to be able to satisfy increasing demands

• Technical and financial support are also need to help those rural youth to acheive their micro-projects

ARD Statistics – Results from Regional Consultations(1/4)

• Agriculture Research Institute accross all regions (50)

• Various youg professionals engage in ARD activities (about 25 per region),

• More than 36 school of agriculture under MINADER/MINEPIA supervision for youth,

Mobilization of youth duing the regional consultation

ARD Statistics – Results from Regional Consultations(2/4)

ARD Statistics – Results from Regional Consultations(3/4)

• Yaounde: 26 participants

• Dschang: 10 participants

• Bamenda: 14 participants

• Bertoua: 10 participants

• Douala: 35 Participants

ARD Statistics – Results from Regional Consultations(4/4)

• Information supposed to help the youths don’t always get to them

• Dialogue platforms supposed to be for youths hardly even involve them. When they are involved, they are hardly given the opportunity to express themselves.

• Youths who want to even work in agriculture are not motivated enough to enable them invest in their activities as would be the case.

• Information about what others are doing for development in other countries are not well known or taken into consideration.

ARD NEEDS YOU

• YPARD is a key platform for ARD and has provided instrumental support to establish the discussion forum …

• ……But more can be done.

• Let’s continue engaging rural youth across the nation in enhancing ARD to enable their voices to be heard!

• So, get involve by participating to YPARD, FARA, AFAAS, …. activities.

THANK YOU!!Merci!!

If agriculture is the engine for Africa food security, youths are the fuel to make it function well