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were ineffective, hence the need to aggregate and build
institutions of the poor from the grass-roots level. The insti-
tutional platform of smallholder farmers created a local
source of finance and organization that the rural poor need
to start enterprises, gain job skills, increase incomes and
try innovative solutions to their problems — including food
security and nutrition centres.
Key lessons were learned during the project. Rural credit
programmes, particularly in remote areas, require innovative
mechanisms that adapt to constraints on financial institutions
and beneficiaries. Following the success of SLCDD Phase 1,
the Government of Sierra Leone was strongly committed to
the CDD approach and requested a follow-on project, SLCDD
Phase 2, which has been processed and approved by IDB’s
Board of Executive Directors. In June 2015 a financing agree-
ment was signed by IDB and the Government at the IDB
Annual Meeting in Mozambique. SLCDD Phase 2 will scale up
on the results of SLCDD Phase 1. It relies on demand-driven
investments and the empowerment of local communities to
improve productivity and is specifically focusing on technol-
ogy improvement, enabling SAGs to leverage collaboration
between project and research and extension systems and
improve the quality of livelihoods.
Ensuring sustainable rural livelihoods in Cameroon
Cameroon’s poverty rate remains at 20-25 per cent and is a
disproportionately rural phenomenon. With limited irriga-
tion potential, natural resource management (NRM) issues
are critical to sustainable economic development, especially in
more marginalized rural areas such as the Mont Bpabit region.
The rural poor, who make up 85 per cent of the popula-
tion in the area, rely on rain-fed agriculture and herding. Given
that the population in this area is expected to increase by more
than 20 per cent between 2012 and 2020, the sustainability
of such livelihood systems is in question. The Government of
Cameroon has sought to maximize agricultural potential in
dryland areas while managing natural resources in a sustain-
able manner, but there have been several problems as the tribes
and agricultural producer organizations have tended to remain
isolated, and the Government has had little experience address-
ing these rural concerns.
The development objective of the IDB-funded Rural Land
Development Project was to help reduce rural poverty and
improve food security in the Mont Bpabit region through the
development of 1,200 ha of lowlands, and improvement of
agricultural production and NRM. The project components
were designed to achieve this objective through lowland
development and construction of socioeconomic infrastruc-
ture; water harvesting and watershed management, which
would introduce several environmentally-sound water-
harvesting interventions; adaptive research implemented on
a demand-driven basis; and extension and training, which
would provide funding for establishing effective agricultural
extension services.
All activities are implemented within the framework of
traditional community-based structures/tribal organiza-
tions, resulting in a demand-driven development process.
This tribal framework ensures that government personnel
become sensitized to rural community needs and concerns
and it mobilizes local populations to manage natural
resources in a sustainable manner. To incorporate tribal
systems into their management framework, community
groups which determined their own composition and struc-
ture were established.
With the objective of conserving the natural resource
base, 1.2 million cubic metres of water storage facilities
have been constructed, exceeding the estimated target by
about five times and representing a 45 per cent increase in
water availability. The project also established 150 rangeland
management units, and established fodder trees and shrubs
on approximately 2,000 ha. In terms of poverty reduction
and improving livelihoods, construction of safe drinking
water storage facilities resulted in agricultural and health
benefits for the local rural population. Increased fodder
availability and genetic improvement led to increased income
from livestock and the adoption of high-yield varieties led
to increases of 27-70 per cent in the productivity of vegeta-
bles and other crops. Overall, socioeconomic conditions of
10,440 households have been improved. In addition, the
project built a good foundation for local capacity in resource
management through training and support for project staff,
farmers and community representatives.
Engaging an isolated group in a broad NRM project
through the incorporation of existing community-based
institutions was an innovative approach. Core project
beneficiaries include farmers — especially SFs, farmers’ asso-
ciations, cooperatives, rural producer organizations (RPOs),
private sector and value chain actors at the local, district and
national level. Overall, these RPOs represent about 10,000
farming households, of which 1,200 produce cassava, 2,050
produce maize, 3,000 produce vegetables and 4,000 produce
rain-fed upland and lowland rice.
The project illustrates that a multisectoral/multidiscipli-
nary approach in NRM and poverty reduction projects is
more likely to achieve objectives than single-sector projects.
Participatory project implementation requires flexible budget-
ing that is not constrained to predetermine outputs, but relies
on a demand-driven identification of activities. And adequate
initial training and capacity-building is a prerequisite to the
start-up of activities requiring beneficiary participation.
Future direction for smallholder farmers
The question serious analysts would pose is: which sectors
of the economy in Sierra Leone and Cameroon need urgent
attention? Agriculture is the motor of the economy and is
therefore a priority. There is also the issue of illegal migra-
tion, which sees African youth migrating to Europe only
to perish in the Mediterranean. This is of concern to their
countries of origin as well as recipient countries. In order to
make agriculture attractive to the youth, there is an urgent
need to invest in activities that are likely to create employ-
ment; to invest massively in labour-intensive infrastructure
projects and transform agriculture from subsistence-based
production to business; and to reform the land tenure
system and improve farming practices. Agriculture has to
be a rewarding business. Not only will this automatically
earn rural farmers more money, but it will also make agri-
business a more viable proposition.
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