Insight into Agricultural Mechanization in Cameroon: Case of Farm Operators, Users of Agricultural Equipment and Machines
Abstract
Cameroon has an economy strongly dominated by the agricultural sector and despite this domination as well as the fact that this sector is backed by several policy documents and statements, investments in the sector is still grossly underdeveloped. Many farm operators in the different agro ecological environment still rely to an overwhelming extend on the use animate power to achieve their agricultural production goals. This power source and the tools used have implicit limitation in terms of energy and operational output. Cameroon government persistently carry out some initiative to inverse the tendency such as the providing modern agricultural equipment and machinery to farm operators, training complex farm machinery users. However, these solutions are not part of a common though and so far have produced mixed results without a significant improvement on the field. This paper permits to appreciate the challenges faced by users of farm technology in agricultural mechanization via four main crops of significant importance to Cameroon: Maize, Cassava, Sorghum and Cocoa.
Among others, it was observed that 75% of farmers involved in cultivation of sorghum, maize, cassava have land surfaces less than 2%. These small farm sizes are a serious handicap to the effective mechanization due to sparse and scattered cultivated lands. Also, only 13% (112) of farm operators have access to credit from micro finance institutions. This low access to credit contributes to the reluctance of farm operators to invest in agricultural machinery acquisition with only 3% owing a land with a land title.
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Introduction
Cameroon by its sociocultural diversity is a gift of nature, more so, in terms of agriculture and agronomy. It is characterized by a very dynamic population, a profusion of variety of crops that all do well throughout their respective agro-ecological zones, diverse climatic patterns suitable for various agricultural practices, just to name a few.
Agriculture (farming) is an activity carried out by a vast majority of Cameroonians (70%) with some enrolled in it as their main activity and others carrying it out as a secondary activity. Those that practice it as a main activity are organized as individuals or constituted in groups or associations with a common interest such as Common Initiative Groups, Cooperatives, etc. ([1] [2]).
However, animate power (human muscles or draft animals) constitute the main technology used to attain most of the agricultural objectives set by farm operators. Meanwhile mechanical power (internal combustion engines and/or electric motors) is still reluctant to dominate the agricultural field in Africa in general and in Cameroon in particular [3]. Agricultural mechanization is not an end in itself but a means that can help to bridge the gap that separates developed countries from agricultural developing countries sharing similar challenges like Cameroon [4].
According to [5], “Mechanization of agriculture and farming process connotes application of machine power to work on land, usually performed by bullocks, horses and other draught animals or by human labor.” This definition goes in straight line with [6], as „‟it chiefly consists in either replacing, or assisting or doing away with both the animal and human labor in farming by mechanical power wherever possible”.
Conclusion
Controversy continues to surround the issue of mechanization, especially with regard to the level of mechanization appropriate to developing countries. However, few would deny that increasing agricultural productivity is the cornerstone of rural development. Despite this potential impact of mechanization, its adoption is still very difficult to achieve especially by small scale farmers due to the financial investment required. Farm mechanization in Cameroon has seen a rather slow progress over the years. The demand of important agricultural equipment like tractors, power tillers, combine harvesters, irrigation pump sets, diesel engines, has shown an increasing trend. This paper permit to appreciate the situation of agricultural mechanization in Cameroon via four (04) main crops.
Indeed, it was observed that the farming system in Cameroon is characterized in a majority (75%) by small farm operators with farm sizes less than 2 hectares. Significant farm sizes were observed from farmers that farm cocoa. Also, it was found out that 55% of farmers own their land without titles, while just 3% had land titles.
Despite some progress observed in the field of agricultural mechanization, this research showed that animate power is still very dominant in Cameroon. Indeed, manual tools constitute the essential tools used by farm operators regardless of the crop (under study) i.e. 89,8%. Motorization on the other hand, affects only 6.25% of farm operators. Also, 74% of farm operators are still not satisfied with the type of tool or technology they use to achieve their agricultural production goals. The main reasons for these dissatisfactions are the physical and financial inaccessibly to appropriate agricultural tools, equipment and machines; the inadequacy of the equipment in relation to its conditions of use; the absence of spare parts, the ageing of equipment, etc.
This work permits to appreciate the current state of mechanization from four main crops with the various challenges faced by the users of farm technology which if tackled efficiently could significantly improve the impact of mechanization in Cameroon.