Three years after the launch of the Bimodal Rainfall Forest-based Pluvial Rice Development Project (PRODERIP in French), the Cameroonian government’s initiative, with the support of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), was able to increase rice production to 2,500 tonnes after the production and distribution of 152 tonnes of seeds to farmers.

In PRODERIP’s newly released report, although production was satisfactory according to project heads, it hinted government and JICA’s plans to produce 650,000 tonnes by 2018.

PRODERIP is one of the backbones of government drive to increase rice production after Cameroon received the support of the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) in 2010.

Essentially, in addition to traditional rice farming in irrigated zones, the goal was to develop pluvial rice farming - an effort to which PRODERIP has been devoted to for over three years now with results that leave little room for optimism about the annual production target of 650,000 tonnes in 2018.

This is because, in order to reach the goal, based on the current results, annual production would not only have to be increased from the present 100,000 tonnes to 150,000 tonnes per annum for the next three years, but local consumption of SEMRY produced rice, and exports to Nigeria need to be promoted.