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Trees, agroforestry and multifunctional

agriculture in Cameroon
a a b c
Ebenezar K. Asaah , Zacharie Tchoundjeu , Roger R. B. Leakey , Bertin
a a a
Takousting , James Njong & Innocent Edang
a
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), West and Central Africa Regional
Programme , Yaoundé, Cameroon
b
Agroforestry and Novel Crops Unit , James Cook University , Cairns,
Australia
c
White Lodge , Jerusalem, Pencaitland, East Lothian, EH34 5BQ, Scotland,
UK
Published online: 08 Jun 2011.

To cite this article: Ebenezar K. Asaah , Zacharie Tchoundjeu , Roger R. B. Leakey , Bertin Takousting , James
Njong & Innocent Edang (2011) Trees, agroforestry and multifunctional agriculture in Cameroon, International
Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 9:1, 110-119

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 Trees, agroforestry and multifunctional
agriculture in Cameroon
Ebenezar K. Asaah1 *, Zacharie Tchoundjeu1, Roger R. B. Leakey2,3, Bertin Takousting1, James Njong1
and Innocent Edang
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1
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), West and Central Africa Regional Programme, Yaoundé, Cameroon
2
Agroforestry and Novel Crops Unit, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia
3
White Lodge, Jerusalem, Pencaitland, East Lothian EH34 5BQ, Scotland, UK

Modern agriculture has deprived local communities in the tropics of their natural life-support system – the forest
resource and the traditional knowledge about indigenous species – and this has not been replaced by employment
opportunities or social services. This project in the west and northwest regions of Cameroon takes an innovative
three-step approach to improving the lives of local people by establishing rural resource centres (RRCs) to: (i)
Rehabilitate degraded land and promote food security through the use of nitrogen-fixing trees to restore crop yields
and then the diversification of the farming system with new crops; (ii) Create income generation opportunities from
village tree nurseries and the domestication of indigenous fruits and nuts for local and regional trade. Income is
rising annually and currently averages $150, $16,000 and $21,000 per RRC after 2, 5 and 10 years, respectively; (iii)
Encourage the processing and marketing of food crops and tree products in order to create employment and
entrepreneurial opportunities for community members. Income is currently $2400 per enterprise. The project’s
philosophy is one of helping smallholder farming communities to help themselves: first to become self-sufficient and
economically independent, and then to be a hub for the dissemination of knowledge and skills to neighbouring
communities.
Keywords: agroforestry; agroforestry tree products; impact; livelihoods; multifunctional agriculture; participatory
domestication; rural resource centres

Introduction agriculture and for crops destined for export to indus-

Cameroon is Africa in miniature. It is a country with a
very diverse set of environments from wet tropical
lowland rainforest in the south and east to semi-arid
savannah in the north that is verging on desert. In
between there are upland areas with montane forests
and grasslands. As in most tropical countries, people
used to depend on the forest for the wide range of pro-
ducts they used to meet their everyday needs; they
were hunter-gatherers and subsistence farmers. In
the past, farmers practised shifting agriculture on
small plots of cleared forest, which were abandoned
after 2–3 years and then allowed to revert to forest/
shrub fallows that replenished soil fertility. With the
advent of colonialism and then globalization, the
forest was cleared for what was considered to be pro-
gress in many different guises, but especially for
trialized countries. As populations grew and agricul-
ture expanded, the deforestation spread and together
with the disappearance of the trees there was the
loss of an important resource of traditionally impor-
tant nutritious foods, medicines and other useful pro-
ducts, including the loss of wild animals eaten as
‘bush meat’.
Modern agriculture ignored these local species, and
instead promoted cash crops from other parts of the
world and intensively farmed staple food crops like
maize, cassava and yams, and in some areas domesti-
cated livestock. In addition to improved crop seeds,
the Green Revolution package promoted artificial fer-
tilizers and a range of pesticides. Typically, however,
the farm size in Africa is less than 5ha, often less than
2ha; hence farming was focused on providing for the
needs of the household and seldom on providing food

*Corresponding author. Email: e.asaah@cgiar.org

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY 9(1) 2011
PAGES 110–119, doi:10.3763/ijas.2010.0553 # 2011 Earthscan. ISSN: 1473-5903 (print), 1747-762X (online). www.earthscan.co.uk/journals/ijas
 Trees, agroforestry and multifunctional agriculture in Cameroon
for sale. Consequently, farmers were not generating
income and remained very poor. They were thus
unable to purchase fertilizers and the other inputs
that would maintain good crop yields. Furthermore,
as the forest receded, the land became more degraded
with increasing loss of soil fertility. In parallel with
this degradation, there was a decline in the range of
living organisms that are essential for the maintenance
of life processes, such as nutrient and carbon cycling,
food chains and life cycles important for pest and
disease control, pollination and so on. Furthermore,
access to potable water declined due to erosion, silta-
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tion and pollution. Against this background, modern
agriculture has dramatically increased the yield poten-
tial of many staple food crops. However, for farmers
in the highlands of Cameroon, just like those in
many other developing countries, the consumption
of a diet increasingly based on starch-based foods
like cassava, cocoyams, maize and the reduced con-
sumption of traditional foods led to unbalanced
diets, malnutrition and a greater susceptibility to
disease.
Improved fallows using leguminous tree and shrub
species are a well-known, widely tested and increas-
ingly adopted agroforestry technology for soil fertility
improvement (Cooper et al., 1996; Buresh and
Cooper, 1999; Kanmegne et al., 2003; Degrande
et al., 2007). Results from a wide range of sites in
Cameroon have shown that consequently maize
yields are increased, on average, by about 70 per cent
(Degrande et al., 2007), but in some areas three- or
four-fold gains are possible. However, recognizing
the traditional importance of indigenous tree products
for food and nutritional security (Leakey, 1999),
and the declining resource of these species, the
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), in 1995,
initiated a programme to domesticate the species pro-
ducing indigenous fruits and nuts. Work to domesti-
cate these species started in Cameroon in 1997 to
improve the yield and quality of their products, with
a focus on the species identified as the farmers’ priori-
ties (Irvingia gabonensis, Dacryodes edulis, Ricino-
dendron heudelotii, Garcinia kola, Cola spp.,
Pausinystalia johimbe and Prunus africana).
The techniques and strategies of vegetative propa-
gation, characterization of genetic variation, tree
selection and cultivar development have been exten-
sively reported elsewhere (see the reviews by
Leakey et al., 2005, 2007). Uniquely, the approach
developed in Cameroon was to work directly with
local communities and to promote the use of local
knowledge (Leakey et al., 2003; Tchoundjeu et al.,
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY
111
2006, 2010). Through this research, techniques and
strategies for participatory tree domestication were
developed with the aim of empowering local commu-
nities, promoting food self-sufficiency, generating
income and employment, and enhancing nutritional
benefits. This participatory approach brings together
agricultural science and community empowerment.
There is now growing evidence that in this way agro-
forestry can help rural communities to be self-
sufficient and to support their families on an area of
less than 5ha (Schreckenberg et al., 2006; Degrande
et al., 2006). As a result, the domestication of indigen-
ous fruit and nut trees is now becoming recognized as
an important component of agroforestry, which is
starting to have meaningful impacts in rural develop-
ment with application in the alleviation of poverty,
malnutrition and hunger.
Worldwide the incidence of poverty is still in
excess of three billion, with malnutrition around two
billion, while 38 per cent of cropland has been
degraded. As a consequence, local people without
the life-support system of the forest struggle to be self-
sufficient and youths go to the towns in search of
employment. Early in 2008, the International Assess-
ment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Tech-
nology for Development (IAASTD) indicated that in
order to address this complex set of interacting
environmental, social and economic problems, agri-
culture needs to address poverty, malnutrition,
hunger and environmental degradation in an inte-
grated way rather than focusing solely on improved
food production. IAASTD therefore promoted multi-
functional agriculture to resolve social, economic and
environmental sustainability, and find a new approach
to meeting the needs of the smallholder farmer (McIn-
tyre et al., 2008). In recent years, this philosophy has
been implemented in Cameroon by the World Agro-
forestry Centre through its Agroforestry Tree Domes-
tication projects funded by the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Govern-
ment of the Republic of Cameroon. The aim of
these projects has been to empower smallholder
farmers to help themselves climb out of poverty, mal-
nutrition and hunger, while at the same time creating
more environmentally sustainable farming systems.
The current USDA project integrates agriculture,
agroforestry, the marketing of agricultural and tree
products, microfinance and small post-harvest
machinery through a self-help package for poor small-
holder farmers based on capacity building, communi-
cation and community development.
 112 E. K. Asaah et al.

Through this integrated approach to rural develop-
ment it has become clear that agroforestry can be the
delivery mechanism for multifunctional agriculture
(Leakey, 2010). The process involves three steps
(Figure 1).
The first step involves the restoration of soil fertility
using nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs in improved
fallows to rehabilitate degraded land and so to
improve food security from staple food crops.
The second step involves tree domestication, which
develops new tree crops to replace the lost resource of
forest species that are important in the lives of local
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increasing the availability of the products throughout
the year, expanding trade and creating off-farm
employment opportunities: outputs that should
empower the community and create a pathway out
of poverty.
Project strategy to promoting
multifunctional agriculture
The underlying research developed propagation
methods based on very low-tech appropriate technol-

people. In this way it also enriches and diversifies
the farmland, making it more productive and enhan-
cing the ecological functions of the agroecosystem.
It also improves the quality and marketability of the
tree products.
The third step is to promote entrepreneurism and
develop value-adding and processing technologies
for the new tree crop products. This is aimed at
ogy that did not require running water or electricity,
and so was suitable for use in remote rural commu-
nities. It also developed simple techniques for the
characterization of tree-to-tree variation. However,
the critical strategic development was the decision
to implement participatory tree domestication rather
than the conventional research station approach.
Linked to this was the decision to set up pilot projects

Figure 1 | Flow diagram of agroforestry as a delivery mechanism for multifunctional agriculture

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY

 Trees, agroforestry and multifunctional agriculture in Cameroon
in key communities and to then create rural resource
centres (RRCs) to implement the community
capacity-building activities, with support from relay
organizations (non-governmental organizations
[NGOs]), while ICRAF researchers just played a
coordinating and mentoring role.
The project’s philosophy was to provide knowl-
edge, but no money. Farmers were taught simple,
low-tech methods for the rooting of stem cuttings,
marcotting and grafting. This did not involve the
farmers in buying equipment. As the scale increased,
researchers trained NGO trainers, who then dissemi-
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nated knowledge to the communities. Extension to
new villages was often by farmer-to-farmer exchange
visits. The successful adoption of research outputs can
be attributed to the relevance of the research to
farmers’ needs and interests and the fact that the pro-
gramme builds on traditional knowledge, local
culture, local species and local markets and over-
comes the key constraints of degraded soil fertility,
poverty, malnutrition and unemployment.
The World Agroforestry Centre’s tree domesti-
cation programme in the highlands of Cameroon is
currently funded by the USDA under the ‘Food For
Progress Act’ of 1985, but was initiated in 1999
with funds from IFAD. Currently the programme is
working with more than 200 farmer groups or associ-
ations under the day-to-day supervision of 17 relay
organizations in the western highlands of Cameroon.
These relay organizations are local NGOs, community-
based organizations (CBOs) or some well-established
farmer groups whose capacities have been
reinforced to reskill and support farmers in ways
that open up new opportunities for employment, com-
merce and rural development. Thus, these relay
organizations are training and mentoring organiz-
ations working to improve the livelihoods of partici-
pating communities, with a central focus on trees
that have been traditionally important for food and
nutritional security. Based on the research mentioned
above, the World Agroforestry Centre developed
training packages for the relay organizations to
provide training and technical backstopping on plant
propagation to farmer groups. Using these packages
and the accumulated knowledge of World Agrofores-
try Centre staff, the participatory tree domestication
initiative started with two pilot villages in 1999, and
since then it has rapidly grown as interested commu-
nities have joined. To encourage this early up-scaling,
the IFAD-funded project upgraded the first five pilot
villages to RRCs to particularly improve the horticul-
tural and plant nursery skills of the associated
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY
113
communities. As the RRCs grew, it became necessary
to develop satellite nurseries in the more distant vil-
lages. Today, this network involving over 200 com-
munities is based on seven RRCs (being expanded
to 10) and 150 satellite nurseries servicing more
than 10,000 farmers in the north and northwest
regions of Cameroon (Figure 2).
The relay organizations that manage and facilitate
these RRCs serve as diffusion hubs for new technol-
ogies, skills and knowledge, in association with
national and international research institutes. To
fulfil this role effectively, the RRCs have their own
tree nurseries to provide training for a diverse set of
species based on appropriate horticultural technol-
ogies, agroforestry and soil fertility improvement
using ‘fertilizer’ trees, as well as the improvement
of well-adapted varieties of maize, potatoes, plantain
and cassava. As was planned from the outset, the
long-term sustainability of these RRCs is being
achieved by becoming financially independent as
both viable commercial nurseries and organization
strengthening enterprises.
Under the IFAD project (1999–2006), villagers
came to the RRCs for formal training and work
experience in tree domestication, agroforestry and
nursery management. In addition, they were specifi-
cally taught horticultural skills, such as the identifi-
cation of elite trees with superior characteristics, and
techniques of vegetative propagation (marcotting,
grafting or the rooting of cuttings) appropriate for
sexually mature trees. With these skills, the villagers
can then develop their own selected cultivars produ-
cing a wide range of high-quality, marketable tree pro-
ducts with the capacity to flower and fruit without
going through an unproductive juvenile period, and
that are also ‘true-to-type’ – that is, genetic copies
of the original mother tree.
Through their tree nursery activities, the RRCs
produce nitrogen-fixing ‘fertilizer tree’ seedlings as
well as create selected cultivars of indigenous fruit
and nut trees that can be sold to neighbouring commu-
nities to generate funds to support and expand the facili-
ties. With the growth of the project, the RRCs helped
villagers to develop their own community nurseries.
Equipped with these new skills, farmers are soon in
a position to plant, further multiply or sell plants from
their own nurseries. As this process has progressed,
these satellite nurseries have also started to become
independent and financially viable. Usually farmers
have opted to split their plants between (i) sale to
other RRC members and outsiders, (ii) further multi-
plication to build up numbers for the future and (iii)
 114 E. K. Asaah et al.
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Figure 2 | West and northwest regions of Cameroon showing location of RRCs and satellite nurseries

cultivation to start to produce their own fruits and nuts
for home consumption and sale.
USDA funding started in 2007, and by mid-2009
community empowerment and capacity building was
centred on seven RRCs in the west and northwest
regions of Cameroon, with 150 satellite tree nurseries
(Table 1). Today, the agroforestry network involves
over 10,000 farmers from more than 200 communities,
supervised by 15 relay organizations (NGOs or CBOs)
just for agroforestry. The number of farmers who have
received training has varied from one RRC to the next,
for example, MIFACIG Resource Centre (MIFACIG)
has provided agroforestry training to over 2,500
farmers in 35 satellite nurseries since 2005. Across
all RRCs, the average number of farmers trained per
satellite nursery is about 16 farmers.
The role of the RRCs has been expanded to include
training in a wider variety of skills, from the use of
microfinance, decision making by community
committees, through to business management and
marketing. In addition, the project is actively support-
ing community development and the value-adding of
agricultural produce and agroforestry tree products. In
2009, two relay organizations started to supervise four
women’s groups processing products.
Training community in community organization
and management is being done in partnership with
Centre d’Accompagnement de Nouvelles Alternatives
de Développement Local (CANADEL) to develop
local infrastructure (roads, water supplies, storage
facilities for crops, etc.). The communities are
expected to finance 15 per cent (5 per cent cost
and 10 per cent in kind) of project costs from their
own resources. The processing, value-adding and mar-
keting of agricultural/agroforestry produce is
implemented in partnership with WINROCK Inter-
national through training local engineers in the devel-
opment of small tools and equipment for

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY

 Trees, agroforestry and multifunctional agriculture in Cameroon 115

Table 1 | Background information of the Rural Resource Centres for Farmer Training
Name of RR Centre Key Activities Brief Description of Centre

MIFACIG, Tree domestication 10 years collaboration with ICRAF. It has well

Belo. Bee farming developed training facilities for farmer training in
Boyo Division Seed multiplication participatory tree domestication. 35 satellite
NW Region Soil fertility management. nurseries.
RARC, Tree domestication 5 years collaboration with ICRAF. It a reference
Kumbo, Soil fertility management. centre for farmer training in integrated soil fertility
Bui Division Wheat production management and seed multiplication. 14 satellite
NW Region Irish potato processing nurseries.
Food crop production
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GICPROAGRO, Bayangam, Tree domestication 5 years collaboration with ICRAF. It is reference

Koung-Khi Division, Soil fertility management centre for participatory tree domestication. 9
West Region Marketing of agroforestry products satellite nurseries.
APADER, Tree domestication 5 years collaboration with ICRAF. It is a reference
Bangangte, Soil fertility management centre for participatory tree domestication and
Nde Division Marketing of agroforestry products integrated soil fertility management. 22 satellite
West Region nurseries.
PROWISDEV, Tree domestication 2 years collaboration with ICRAF. It is our reference
Batibo, Marketing of tree products centre in tree domestication, seed multiplication and
Momo Division, Food crop production marketing of agro forestry products. 12 satellite
NW Region Seed multiplication nurseries.
AJPCEDES, Tree domestication 1 year of collaboration with ICRAF. 8 satellite
Foumban, Soil fertility improvement nurseries.
Upper Noun Division, Marketing of tree products
West Region Farmer training

community-level use. This creates off-farm employ-
ment, which is spawning local entrepreneurs who are
setting up businesses in the community. The final com-
ponent of the project is the provision of small short-
term loans to villagers, mostly to women, for the pur-
chase of agricultural inputs (seed, fertilizers, casual
labour, etc.) through a local microfinance provider,
First Investment for Financial Assistance (FIFFA).
As described below in more detail, when integrated
with agroforestry, tree domestication and tree nur-
series, the overall package is improving rural liveli-
hoods by empowering participating communities to
engage in a self-help approach to income generation,
better diets, better health, greater access to education
and increased self-sufficiency and food security.
General outcomes and successes
from multifunctional agriculture
Soil fertility restoration
All the RRCs have promo2ted ‘fertilizer trees’, such
as Calliandra calothyrsus, Acacia angustissima,
Sesbania sesban, Tephrosia vogelli and Cajanus
cajan, to fix atmospheric nitrogen and restore soil fer-
tility. In 2008, the seven RRCs produced over 52,500
fertilizer trees. In 2007–2008 at Riba Agroforestry
Resource Centre (RIBA), the number of farmers
planting fertilizer trees rose from 208 to 360. These
improved fallows have become a well-accepted tech-
nology in most of the communities engaged in this
project, and farmers are reporting that their crop
yields have doubled or tripled. This is a significant
increase in the productivity of staple food crops and
improves food security. Potentially, this increased
yield will allow farmers to plant a smaller area of
food crops and so increase the space for other types
of crops, to meet their other needs. Leguminous
trees and shrubs are also popular with bees; hence
many communities have become bee-keepers, and
in some communities everyone now has access to
honey. To illustrate the importance of these trees,
the 7ha RIBA site was completely bare and degraded,
and had been abandoned by farmers. Now, the soils
have been rehabilitated and the yields of wheat,
maize, beans and potatoes doubled. In addition, the

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY

 116 E. K. Asaah et al.

plot has a diverse range of tree species for other pur-
poses. For example, in addition to providing fuel-
wood, boundary trees act as windbreaks, a woodlot
on the hilltop provides fodder for livestock and
forage for bees, and the fields also contain local indi-
genous fruit and medicinal plants as well as some
exotic fruits.
Production of superior varieties of
indigenous fruit trees
The western highlands of Cameroon have many indi-
genous tree species with the potential to be domesti-
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capacity through the sales of superior varieties of indi-
genous fruit trees. Typically, the first priority is to
produce trees for domestic use (typically about 200
trees per farm) and so it takes about three years
before an income stream starts, but then subsequently
there is rapid growth. The volume and value of these
sales has been steadily climbing year by year, but the
number of trees sold varies between the different
RRCs and nurseries (Table 2). At the 10-year-old
MIFACIG, plant sales from the RRC were valued at
US$21,000 in 2009, while plant sales from its 35 sat-
ellite nurseries averaged about 35 per cent of that

cated and produce marketable food, fodder and value – that is, US$7350. In comparison, the plant-
non-food products. While the project has formally derived income from the five-year-old nursery of
focused on the original set of priority species, we Resource Centre (GIC PROAGRO) was around
now find that once the farmers see and understand US$1750 in 2007 from fertilizer trees, but in 2008
the techniques of vegetative propagation, they start to they shifted to fruit trees and the income in 2009
apply them to a much wider range of species, including was about US$40,000. Already cultivars derived
some exotic fruits such as cocoa, avocados, mangoes from superior trees are the largest source of income
and apples. In 2008, the seven RRCs produced over in the satellite nurseries of GIC PROAGRO. This
122,500 plants of indigenous fruit and nut trees. capacity to generate income from nurseries can be
In addition to selling plants, community members developed quite rapidly. For example, the nursery
also deploy their newly acquired nursery management setup under the RRC of the Promotion of Women’s
and tree propagation skills to improve their own farms. Initiative in Self-Help Development (PROVISDEV)
For example, between 2007 and 2008, the number of which has been in existence for only 18 months, is
trees planted by each household within the RIBA already full of plants of 15 species, many at a market-
network of farmers rose on average from 10 to 120. able size. Soon, all these communities will also be
Similarly, within the MIFACIG network of farmers, able to further increase their income by selling fruits
the number of trees planted per household rose from from their named cultivars.
10 to 200, and the number of groups mentored by
MIFACIG increased from 18 in 2007 to 35 by the
end of 2009. To enhance the sales and start to build
community ownership of the cultivars, they will be
given names that identify the farmer and the nursery. Table 2 | Income generated by relay organizations from
In addition, with the recent formation of the African sale of plants in 2009
Organization of Intellectual Property, variety trials
Name of relay Duration of Income
will be established at the RRCs to ensure that the com- organization collaboration with generated
munities gather the data needed to register their best ICRAF (US$)
cultivars for Plant Breeders Rights.
One entrepreneur who has had a long association MIFACIG 10 years 21,000
with the project has been identifying trees which GIC PROAGRO 5 years 40,000
fruit out-of-season and has been propagating these
RIBA 5 years 1,454
by marcotting. He is selling his selected marcotts at
about US$10, and on rare occasions when he targets APADER 5 years 6,550
rich people visiting the market he has got US$30 for PIPAD 2 years 140
a single plant of a selected cultivar. For this price he
GIC 2 years 140
offers a service contract to plant the tree for the
AFABOONG
customer.
AJP CEDES 2 years 100
Income generation from tree nurseries PROVISDEV 2 years 200
One of the very encouraging outcomes of tree nursery
Total 69,584
developments has been their income-generating

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY

 Trees, agroforestry and multifunctional agriculture in Cameroon
Processing and value-addition options for
tree products
One of the constraints to better food processing is the
local availability of processing equipment. Through
the involvement of WINROCK International, seven
local metal workers have been trained in the design
and fabrication of appropriate equipment for drying
and grinding a range of foodstuffs, including
spices and some new agroforestry products not pre-
viously processed. This development has created
employment opportunities. Each of the trainees now
employs 3–7 people to assist in manufacturing the
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equipment. By 2009, a total of 56 discharge mills
and 18 gas dryers were manufactured and sold.
Users were trained in their use. Income generated by
the sales of this equipment totalled US$44,400 in
2009. Profits from this enterprise are about 10–20
per cent.
Local entrepreneurs and producers are benefiting
from the use of this equipment to extend the shelf
life and quality of their produce. For example, one
entrepreneur – ‘One Man Creation’ – has set up a
stall in Bamenda Market selling sealed packages of
high-quality dried herbs made from indigenous
plants, mostly agroforestry trees (Njansang – R. heu-
delottii, Bitter leaf – Vernonia spp., Eru – Gnetum
africanum). He sells 150g bags of Eru for US$1.35.
Although this is a considerable ‘mark-up’ on fresh
Eru sold in neighbouring stalls, his trade has increased
three-fold in four months, and the traditional traders in
the market are becoming jealous. This business gener-
ated a revenue of US$748 in 2009. Another entrepre-
neur, VINJI Spice Enterprise, is processing chilli
peppers, garlic and ginger and creating new market
outlets for these products. This business generated
US$1,150 in 2009. These small businesses have
also created a few new jobs as each entrepreneur
now has now 2–5 employees.
Food crop processing
About 100 women organized into four groups estab-
lished small commercial companies to process
cassava and other crops. These groups employ 5–7
people. The income generated in 2009 is presented
in Table 3.
One of these groups, Groupe d’Initiative Commune
Femmes dynamiques pour le développement du
manioc (GIC FEDDMA), is run by 10 women who
employ eight workers and process about 66 bags of
dried cassava flour (gari) per day, each bag weighing
180 kg. Gabonese traders are buying these bags at
US$40–54 per bag, depending on the season. As
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY
117
Table 3 | Income generated by groups processing
cassava products, 2009
Name of relay Duration of Income
organization collaboration with generated
ICRAF (years) (US$)
Mambu self-help 2 3,000
Sang women 3 498
mixed farming
group
Groupe Equilibre 2 3,000
Alimentaire de
Modjou
GIC FEDDMA 2 3,000
Total 9,498
profits are said to be US$2.7 per bag, this suggests
that each of the 10 women are making an income of
around US$3,000–4,000 per year. In three other
groups, including Mambu Self-help Group, a
cassava grinding mill and facilities for the preparation
of gari were donated by a USDA-funded project.
Mechanization dramatically increased the processing
capacity and a total of 41 tonnes of cassava was pro-
cessed into gari from November 2008 to November
2009, generating about 1.5 million CFA francs
(US$3,000).
Microfinance
Through the involvement of FIFFA, the project is also
helping farmers to obtain short and small-scale loans
for the purchase of inputs such as seeds, fertilizers
and hired labour. These loans are very desirable, but
are not essential for the longer-term sustainability of
the project. The RRCs are involved in explaining to
farmers how to apply and pay back their loans.
Farmers who make their repayments on time are
rewarded with the opportunity of having a larger
loan in subsequent years. In the first phase of loans,
US$78,000 was made available to over 900 farmers
in 82 communities, 70 per cent of whom were
women. By the end of 2009, US$246,000 was made
available to 1,239 farmers – 359 men and 642
women. Farmers have benefited greatly from this
access to microfinance and are consequently increas-
ing their crop production. Secondary benefits from
the use of these loans for casual labour have included
the release of children from farm work so that they can
attend school.
 118 E. K. Asaah et al.

Community infrastructure suggest that the domestication of indigenous fruit

With the assistance of CANADEL, the project is
helping community members to develop community
development plans finance and implement their own
small infrastructure projects. For example, three com-
munities have installed water standpipes in their com-
munities. Potable water is now being piped from
hillside springs 2–10km away. This clean water has
greatly improved the health of community members
as well as eliminated the need for women to carry
water from contaminated streams and rivers. The
water was also being used for livestock, village nur-
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and nut trees acts as a catalyst to the promotion of self-
sufficiency through the empowerment of individuals
and community groups through the provision of
new skills in agroforestry, food production and pro-
cessing, community development and microfinance.
In this way, it is possible for communities to climb
the entrepreneurial ladder out of poverty. By so
doing, they set themselves on a path towards
improved livelihoods based on the recognition of
the social and cultural value of ‘life-support
systems’ from indigenous species formerly ignored

series and small-scale irrigation of off-season veg- by agricultural science.

etable plots. By the end of 2009, the programme had
provided support for nine infrastructure projects,
including the construction of boarding facilities at Discussion
the MIFACIG RRC. In every case, the communities
This project is an excellent example of how multi-
were closely involved in their conception, design
functional agriculture delivers social, economic and
and execution. They also contributed towards con-
environmental sustainability and raises poor people
struction and costs. Before the project began, each
out of poverty, malnutrition and environmental degra-
community agreed to provide 5 per cent of the cost
dation. The prime purpose of this is to get people out
in cash and 10 per cent in kind. The project’s cost
of poverty in rural Africa. The approach uses ‘fertili-
was, on average, around 4 million CFA francs
zer’ trees to improve soil fertility, and then to generate
(US$8,000), with the road projects being the most
income from selected cultivars of indigenous fruit and
expensive. The communities were fully involved in
nut trees that have local and regional markets. These
the selection of the contractors, who bid by tender,
tree products then need processing and trading,
and the work was supervised by the community’s
which creates opportunities for employment and
own development committees.
entrepreneurism. In this way, we are trying to generate
other jobs in the rural economy, so that some farmers
can become processors, value-adders, traders, fabrica-
Impacts of multifunctional tors of processing equipment and so on. Hopefully
agriculture therefore, the exposure of this project resulting from
this UK Foresight Initiative will help to increase the
The most important and exciting thing about this
acceptance of these approaches to resolving the pro-
project has been the wide range of positive livelihood
blems of agriculture. The technologies and practices
impacts that are transforming peoples’ lives. A recent
adopted by this are not specific to any agro-ecological
study identified 31 positive impacts, which are now
zone or country and are already in practice in many
being verified and quantified.
countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia and
These impacts include a feeling of empowerment
Oceania: in both humid and semi-arid climates. The
from increased knowledge and success; recognition
next challenge is the wider implementation and
of a pathway out of poverty; retention of youths in
scaling-up of the project concepts. The main capacity
the villages due to career opportunities; enhanced
constraint is in the skills of vegetative propagation of
livelihoods from improved nutrition, better health
tropical trees. The second constraint is the policy
and increased income; and access to children’s
support and appropriate funding to drive the process
schooling, home improvements, wells and so on.
to the level where adopters see their first trees estab-
Additionally, women indicated reduced drudgery in
lished in the field and fruiting.
their lives from not having to collect water from
rivers and carry farm produce from remote fields, as
well as from mechanical processing of food crops. Conclusion
All these meant that they had more time to look
after their families and engage in farming or other The lessons learnt from the Agricultural and Tree Pro-
income-generating activities. These impacts strongly ducts Program suggest strongly that it is possible to

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY

 Trees, agroforestry and multifunctional agriculture in Cameroon
take the concepts of multifunctional agriculture
forward in ways that break the cycles of land degra-
dation and social deprivation that have kept nearly
half the world’s population in poverty and so to
steer a path towards social, economic and environ-
mental sustainability. The programme has been com-
plemented by its steering committee as the most
innovative and holistic of the four ‘Food For Progress’
projects funded by the US Department of Agriculture
in Cameroon over the past decade. What is needed
now is to disseminate these skills and experience to
millions of other poor people in Africa and other
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tropical countries. There are many ways of doing
this, but one very interesting and outstanding lesson
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