Miller Magazine Issue: 127 July 2020

Cameroon 84 MILLER / JULY 2020 Cameroon is a lower-middle-income country with a population of over 25 million. Located along the Atlantic Ocean, the triangle-shaped country shares its borders with Chad, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Ga- bon, and Nigeria. Two of its border regions with Nigeria are Anglophone, while the rest of the country is Francophone. Measuring about 700 km east to west and 1,200 km from north to south, Cameroon covers an area of 475,442 km². It forms a bridge between West Africa and Central Africa. Having enjoyed several decades of stability, for many years now Cameroon has been grappling with attacks by Boko Haram in the Far North and a secessionist insurgency in the Anglophone regions. Cameroon is the largest economy in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), a region experiencing an economic crisis triggered by the steep fall in oil prices. With a strategic location that makes the coun- try a natural gateway into the landlocked region of Cen- tral Africa (including Chad, Central African Republic and northern Congo), Cameroon is an influential country in the economic and monetary community of Central Africa. IMMENSE AGRICULTURAL POTENTIAL Despite exogenous shocks and security challenges, Cam- eroon’s economy grew an estimated 4.1% in 2019 thanks to a dynamic ter- tiary sector and growth in consumption and investment. Growth is projected to remain around 4% in 2020 before slow- ing to 3.4% in 2021. The persistence of security problems, specifically Boko Ha- ram, in the far north and sociopolitical tensions in the northwest and southwest are affecting the economy, with trans- port, hospitality, telecommunications, and commercial agriculture recording significant material and financial losses. Agriculture is the main pillar of Cam- eroon's economy. The sector is em- ploying an estimated 70 per cent of the country's workforce, while provid- ing 42 per cent of its GDP and 30 per cent of its export revenue. Agriculture is considered a key tool for ensuring food security. Cameroon is well known for its climatic, geographic and ecological di- versity, which enables farmers to grow a wide variety of crops. However, agri- culture has so far been unable to fully achieve its objectives. Indeed, Cam- eroon continues to import agricultural products despite its immense potential. Like many other countries in sub-Saha- ran Africa, Cameroon is dependent on food imports to feed its population, de- spite a huge potential to produce its own food. Main agricultural products include plantains, cattle meat, cocoa beans, taro, bananas, corn, fresh vegetables and groundnuts. Its prima- ry export crops are cocoa, cotton, coffee, bananas, rubber and palm oil. The country's ecologies range from sudano-sahelian in the far north to sub-equatorial rainforest in the far south, via Guinean wooded and grassy savannahs high and low in the center, and mountain, highland and coastal ecologies in the west. Food crop types change from cereals in the north, main- ly sorghum and corn, to yams and cassava in the center, but still with substantial corn, to increasing dependence on cassava as well as plantain towards the south and west, again with the ubiquitous corn. But there are also many niche areas and products, as well as fish from the major rivers, from lakes and barrages, and from the sea. Food crop production remains one of the principal agri- cultural activities in Cameroon, with corn being one of the dominantly cultivated grain crop across the national terri- tory. Apart from being a source of staple food for a good number of village communities especially in the Northwest and Western parts of the country, it also provides food for animals and serves as a raw material for a number of in-