The pilot committee of the Research Support Programme of MINRESI held in Yaounde Monday, January 27, 2014.

The pilot Committee of the C2D Research Support Programme (PAR) of the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation under the auspices of its Executive Secretary, Isaac Roger Tchouamo intimated during the committee's third session that emphasis would be laid on massive production and processing of both food and cash crops in 2014.

The food crops, the Executive Secretary said, include plantain and banana, rice and cassava, sorghum and Irish potatoes, and vegetable and fruit crops. Emphasis was also laid on three important cash crops including rubber, coffee and cocoa. Since the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development, IRAD, is the brain behind food production and security with their numerous innovative research activities; it got three billion out of the FCFA 5.5 billion allocated to the programme.

Last year, the programme had five principal components to work on. According to Isaac Roger Tchouamo, a good potion of the five components including a study on the economy on research in Cameroon has been done. On that respect, the tender board already signed the file and gave the go-ahead for research to start in February 2014.

Regarding IRAD research projects, four of the ten components have been validated and subvention signed last December. The other components including research development on competitive funds and the scientific expertise of CIRAD are near completion.

The session chaired by the President of the Pilot Committee who doubles as the Secretary General at the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation, Madeleine Etame Ebelle, also validated the 2013 activity and financial reports.