Cooperative movements have been identified as the best platform on which farmers in the Southwest Region and Cameroon at large can use to benefit from Government support, international organisations and other stakeholders engage in agriculture.

Andrew Ngome Eneme, General Manager of the Southwest Development Authority, SOWEDA, made the statement at the esplanade of the Community Development School in Kumba, November 4, while launching a five day seminar to strengthen the capacity of farmers on quality cocoa beans production.

Eneme said if farmers constitute themselves into organised cooperatives, most of their challenges would be brought under control.

According to him, Government and individuals are only willing to help farmers, if farmers are grouped into cooperatives or operate as a team.

“When farmers group themselves into cooperatives, they would be able to surmount problems like rampant stealing of their produce, such as, the cocoa pods in the case of cocoa. Those who do not own cocoa farms will be questioned to disclose the source of their produce.”

The GM said the work shop is intended to arrest the problems of ignorance, aging farms, disorganise nature of farmers and the dwindling quality of cocoa produced in the Region.

He assured participants that SOWEDA will continue to intervene in the economic interest of communities and their population through such capacity building and knowledge sharing sessions.

Launching the workshop, the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for Meme, David Koulbout Aman, said the training is part of activities geared towards renewing the importance of cocoa as a national crop and its economic benefits to the Cameroon economy.

With extrapolation from institutions such as the National Cocoa and Coffee Council, the SDO said Cameroon benefitted some FCFA 250 billion in terms of Gross National Production from cocoa in 2013.

Koulbout said although the figures put Cameroon as the 5th world producer of cocoa with the Southwest contributing 33 percent of the output, there is need for improvement.

The administrator said the Region ought to be contributing between 33 to 49 percent of the national cocoa production but for challenges such as pest and diseases.

The administrator stated that the training of the farmers was going to add to measures taken by stakeholders to wipe out problems affecting the quality of cocoa produce in Cameroon.

On the impact of bad roads on cocoa quality, the SDO said such is the consequence of the climate of the Region. He asserted that, it is partly due to the same rains that the soils in the Southwest are fertile for cocoa production.

Participants drawn from cooperatives in the Region are updating their skills on issues such as the national objectives of the cocoa sector, fertilizer application, productivity, disease control, harvesting, fermentation, bagging, storage and certification.