Trees set for transplanting at community nursery
The Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF) is carrying out activities that will culminate in the planting of three million trees in some 15 divisions of the Northwest, Southwest, West and Littoral regions of Cameroon by the end of 2018. Targeted divisions include; Meme, Fako, Lebialem, Kupe Muanenguba, Bamboutos, Haut Nkam, Menou, Moungo, Ngoketunjia, Menchum, Momo, Mezam,Bui, Boyo, Donga Matum.
This project, according to ERuDeF’s Director of Agroforestry and Agricultural Development, Payong Marquise, is aimed at securing food and income of poor resourced farmers and protecting key water shades in Cameroon. She expatiated on the path traded so far in the realization of this goal.
“We started by identifying seed sources and purchasing seeds mostly from farmers we have been training and working with from the onset of the project. The seeds purchased included agro-forestry, medicinal, timber and some species of vegetables.” She explained.
The Agro-forestry boss said her team has equally prepared the field lead technicians alongside farmers within the respective communities technically and materially to get them armed for the journey. “My department conducted a field mission last April and strengthened the capacities of farmers and technicians on agro-forestry techniques such as bare root nursery, alley cropping, and contour farming and Farm optimization/forest garden,” she added.
With all ground work now completed, the Director said an implementation plan has been put in place. “We have prepared an implementation plan to conduct field mission which will allow farmers transplant the nursed seeds into their optimized farmlands. This activity will run from June till October as the dry season approaches,” she expounded.
Coordinators of the agro-forestry programs in the 4 respective regions of the country, on their own part explained that the trained field technicians of the respective divisions have carried out monitoring activities necessary for the seedlings to reach maturity. They disclosed that field technicians have confirmed their readiness and start transplanting the trees nursed.
Agro-forestry is a project of the Environment and Rural development Foundation and the US based Trees for The Future partners, aimed at supporting the urgent food insecurity problem in Cameroon. It works with farmers and field-based technicians in some 4 regions of Cameroon.
By Adeline Tengem
