The government of Cameroon is gradually stepping up measures to significantly boost cocoa production in the country. The announcement of the presentation of a new scheme for the provision of subsidies to cocoa producers, coming up on Thursday 8 July, is clear proof.
The Cocoa and Coffee Subsectors Development Fund (CCODEF) revealed during a press dinner organized in Yaounde on Tuesday 6 July, that the Producer’s Desk as the scheme is referred to, will provide three types of subsidies to the farmers.
Samuel Donatien Nengue, CCODEF Administrator, indicated that subsidies will be provided to the over 600,000 cocoa farmers in the country and as a result, will help producers to significantly raise cocoa production in Cameroon from 257,000 tons in the 2019/2020 season to 640,000 tons by 2030.
In order to benefit from any of the three types of subsidies which are agriculture input, equipment, and machinery as well as production infrastructure, producers will have to raise 60 percent of the total cost of the subsidies while the State through CCODEF will make available the remaining 40 percent in the bank account opened for that purpose.
So far, some 14,000 cocoa farmers have already been identified in the Moungo Division of the Littoral Region through an exercise intended to ensure that only real and not fake cocoa farmers get the state subsidies.
Written by Pavel Joseph Nyuysuliy – Journalist
