Rice cushions Cameroon women from climate stress

NDOP – Women farmers in western Cameroon are leading the way in commercial rice production, benefiting from new seeds and marketing opportunities that are helping them cope with climate stresses and provide for their families.

A programme run by the Upper Nun Valley Development Authority (UNVDA), a government agro-industry body, aims to help rice farmers adopt better crop varieties, use water more efficiently and adapt to climate change.

“I have been able to pay school fees for my children and medical bills from the sale of my rice crop, unlike before when the harvest from my vegetable farm was uncertain,” said Bridget Ngang, one of over 300 female commercial rice farmers in Ndop.

Her vegetables were often ruined when heavy rains brought floods, she explained.

Cameroon’s Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), together with international partners, has developed improved rice varieties that are more resistant to climate extremes, as well as farm technologies to increase rice productivity.

In the last 15 years, scientists have released 18 varieties under a line called New Rice for Africa (NERICA), developed by the Africa Rice Centre which crossed an African species tolerant to local stresses, including drought and pests, and a high-yielding Asian species.

“These varieties can resist submersion, droughts and high temperatures including pests and diseases,” said UNVDA general manager Chin Richard Wirnkar.

The local development authority is involved in a project led by the Africa Rice Centre which has established a “rapid impact” seed programme to distribute new high-yield seed varieties tom farmers.

It also promotes post-harvest technologies like rice milling and packaging, processing activities, and stronger links with input dealers and micro-finance institutions.

The project gives households opportunities to raise their income by developing new rice-based products like rice flour and husks for fuel, and exploring the use of rice in fortified foods, including vitamin-rich cereals.

“Commercial agriculture will play a key role in achieving the SDGs in Africa and the contribution of women in this area cannot be ignored,” said Wirnkar.

With renewed government interest in the rice sector in recent years, Cameroon has the potential to become a rice granary for the Central African region, according to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Mary Agoh (52) grows rice on 15 hectares of land in Ndop, in Cameroon’s North-west Region, from which she now comfortably feeds her family, selling her surplus to wholesale buyers to boost her income.

In a country where 40% of the population lives below the poverty line, Agoh is now counted among the wealthy.

She and Ndop’s other women rice farmers are helping boost Cameroon’s rice production to unprecedented levels.

In the last few years, Cameroon grew less than 20% of the rice it needed. In 2012, the country produced 102 000 tonnes of paddy rice and had to import up to 375,000 tonnes to meet demand, according to figures cited by the IRRI.

But experts say production has been on the rise since women embraced the commercial rice production scheme. The land developed for rice fields under the UNDVA project more than doubled last year to around 3 300 hectares, and it is adding 700 hectares more in northwestern villages.

Cameroon’s 1996 constitution grants women the same rights as men to access, own and control land, and also allows them to participate in decision-making on land matters, but customary norms have made it hard for women to obtain land.

– Nampa-Thomson Reuters Foundation

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