A delegation from this Asian country has just been received at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to discuss the initiatives to be put in place to boost its production of this cereal.
In Cameroon, rice and frozen fish are the main imported food products. According to the National Institute of Statistics, national rice production is estimated at around 220,000 tonnes against a demand of around 757,000 tonnes. That is a gap to be filled by imports of more than 500,000 tonnes per year. This situation, far from improving, is on the contrary getting worse over time to such an extent that we remember that during a meeting in July 2023, the Minister of Commerce Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana called on importers to import 150,000 tonnes of rice to meet demand for the second half of the above-mentioned year.
However, the situation is not desperate because the country can count on its Korean friends. It is therefore at this level that the audience that the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gabriel Mbairobe, has just granted to a delegation from the Korea Rural Community Corporation led by its president Lee Byung-Ho in the presence of the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Cameroon Jonghan Kim finds its relevance. With rice production on the agenda. The Korean partner intends to support Cameroon in the implementation of mechanisms enabling it to boost its rice production and in turn reduce imports and fight against food insecurity. For this, a project was set up with around ten other countries on the black continent.
This initiative, according to the operational staff, is part of the third phase of the irrigated rice pilot farm project. “South Korea forty years ago was a country lacking rice. But through seed improvement, mechanization and training of professionals, we were able to increase rice production to become a self-reliant country,” said Lee Byung-Ho. “Cameroon wants to learn from their experience since we are in cooperation with Korea to be able to boost rice production. As part of this African rice belt project, we have benefited from the increase in the Avangane production farm in upper Sanaga which will allow us to produce not only 2,000 tonnes of seeds each year, but also carry out training. of personnel in terms of mastery of irrigation techniques and mechanization in production", will indicate for its part Minader
Julien Efila
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