FARMING CONCERNS

In the rural areas of Cameroon, subsistence farming is the norm, and over 70 percent of the farmers are women. (See Women Cooperatives). Many of these areas are suffering from water shortages due to the eucalyptus trees (See Reforestation). 

Reclaiming the land for farming use is an urgent need.  In the meantime, these farmers must travel by foot further and further to reach arable farming land.  This causes great difficulty in the cultivation of their crops, and transportation of their produce. 

Because of the land squeeze, poor peasant farmers depend on chemical fertilizers to ensure sufficient farming yields.  These chemical fertilizers are expensive and environmentally unfriendly.  This has reduced many farmers into a vicious cycle of poverty.  Farmers are often loaned the money to purchase chemical fertilizers but in many cases, the farming yield is insufficient to repay the loan, resulting in spiraling debts.  Continued use of chemical fertilizer causes nutrient deficiencies in the soil, requiring even more fertilizer for the overworked/infertile farmland.   In addition to the cost of chemical fertilizers, there is a health risk associated with using chemicals.  The most common problem is contamination of drinking water due to runoff from the farms.  Another is the mismanagement of the use of chemical fertilizers.  Many people don’t understand that once containers have been used to hold chemicals, they cannot then be used for household use.  Undocumented deaths and illness have occurred due to this problem.