Local buying agents in Cameroon will henceforth put on badges when carrying out their activity of buying cocoa from farmers. The move was arrived at recently as a measure to eliminate mischievous agents who gallivant and defraud helpless cocoa farmers with fake scales.

This information was made available to the press in Kumba, July 24, during a two-day workshop organized by the National Cocoa and Coffee Board, NCCB and the Inter-professional Council for Cocoa and Coffee, CICC. Holding at the Kumba city banquet hall, the workshop grouped representatives of farmers’ cooperatives in the South West region.

While opening the workshop, the first assistant senior divisional officer for Meme, Epolewane Veckline thanked the organizers for choosing Meme to host the timely meeting, at a point in time when farmers are preparing for the harvest season across the country.

For his part, the government delegate to the Kumba city council, Ngoh Victor Nkelle saluted the initiative of NCCB and CICC and affirmed that increasing the scale of cocoa and coffee production will be a great achievement for the South West and Cameroon as a whole.

He equally noted that FODECC, through the ministry of agriculture has been able to provide farmers in the region with quality planting seeds to help eradicate diseases like toxic pest, fungi, etc. While appreciating the NCCB and CICC for organizing such an enriching workshop, the city council boss reiterated his desire to assist the institutions when need arises.

According to the representative of cocoa producers, James Musima Lobe, the South West region tops the chart in Cameroon, with close to 40% production of cocoa; amounting to between 96,000 tons and 200,000 tons of cocoa in 2013. “240,000 tons to 600,000 tons have been envisaged for 2018 if only farmers respect the proper methods of drying the cocoa beans”, James Lobe forecasted.

However, the producers’ representative decried the poor state of farm-to-market roads, inaccessibility of producer organizations, the lack of money for farmers to acquire a land title which can enable them obtained loans from banks, and the notorious presence of fake buyers who operate with malevolent scales.

At the end of the workshop, the following resolutions were arrived at: the need for farmers to join cooperatives and common initiatives groups; proper sensitization of farmers on the adequate fermentation of their cocoa; the need for SAMOA ovens and sunlight to be promoted as drying facilities for cocoa; amongst others.

In addition, participants generally agreed that NCCB should post produce inspectors to control cocoa quality at the main stores of the cooperatives before they are transported to Douala. Also, farmers’ field school training was advanced to be obligatory to all producers in order to meet the 2020 exigencies by the European Union.