Tackling food insecurity in Cameroon: Three cheers to PULCCA!.

When adopting the budget in Yaounde last week at a meeting, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gabriel Mbairobe, said the money will, among other projects, provide "humanitarian assistance to persons facing food crisis in Cameroon”.
He added that the PULCCA project aims not only to give humanitarian assistance to persons in food crisis situation through the World Food Programme, WFP, but also to strengthen the capacities of small-scale farmers to enable them improve on their production and productivity.
The Minister further explained that farmers will also receive some improved seeds, equipment and capacity building on good practices in agriculture.  
“We urge all the members of the Steering Committee to work hard so that the resolution can help in the execution of the programme on the field so that by the end of 2025, we should have achieved our objectives,” he said.
The PULCCA project, the member of government also said, will contribute to the realisation of the Presidential Plan for Reconstruction in the crisis-hit Regions, with the rehabilitation of some schools, health centres and construction of warehouses in view within the project. 
“I have reminded them that President Biya has said that as long as there is a single Cameroonian without what to eat, we would not have achieved our mission,” the minister assured.
According to PULCCA Coordinator, Dr Ndzomo Abanda Gilbert, the budget of the project will enable them capitalise on the achievements of 2023, which were marked by the signing of several contracts with some partners of the project. “What we did in 2023 is that we signed eight contracts; six of which are with the World Food Programme for the transfer of finances to support families in food crisis,” the Project Coordinator said.
“Another contract is for the nutrition of children in school and for nutrition of nursing mothers. The contracts have been signed and the funds transferred,” Dr Ndzomo added.
He then stressed that: “For 2024, we want to boost our activities on the field, notably with effective transfer of the funds to the targeted families, nutrition of children in schools, support to farmers in terms of farm tools, equipment, and construction of warehouses. It is all these that will sustain food security which PULCCA stands for”.
It is not just PULCCA that doles out food to starving Cameroonians, especially those in the troubled North West and South West Regions, where sporadic fighting is driving population displacement and exacerbating humanitarian needs.  
"Overall, 3.9 million people in the country require emergency assistance to meet their basic needs," according to the United Nations.
Action Against Hunger, which is also helping to feed Cameroonians, points out that two years ago, food insecurity was estimated to increase "by 70%, compared to 2021, leaving millions more people in need of support". 
It explained that it works in Cameroon to "provide integrated nutrition, health, and mental health support. Our teams are helping to improve livelihoods, prevent hunger and build resilience, through farmer field schools, village savings and loan associations, and more".
There is also the World Food Programme helping. 
The question many have been asking, and continue to ask is: Why should Cameroon, predominantly an agricultural country with some 70 percent of its active work population in farming, be begging for food?
How can a country so lavishly endowed with fertile agriculture land, favourable climatic conditions for all year farming in the various geographical zones, rely on emergency programmes to feed its population?
What has been the impact of the Green Revolution launched by pioneer President, Ahmadou Ahidjo and President Biya's Second Generation Agriculture?
If the programmes and many other projects in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had succeeded, will the country be going on its knees to ask for food donations?
In his end-of-year message last month, President Biya said nothing about agriculture, although his Three-Year Integrated Import Substitution Plan for 2024-2026, which he said he had "instructed the Government to implement," has some agricultural component.
His emphasis was, however, on "solid minerals, especially gold, which appear to be an excellent niche for financial resources. Our country is richly endowed with   mineral resources that need to be exploited, is also part of my effort to enable our country to save on its precious resources”.
“This plan should help to reduce the negative impact of imports on our trade balance by strengthening our food sovereignty," he said.
Cameroon indeed needs food independence from imported rice, fish, chicken, flour, tooth picks, etc. But to do that, it needs to invest in industrialised agriculture, provide finance at attractive interest rates, and enticing conditions for land acquisition, which remains problematic.
At The Guardian Post, we beg to disagree that providing farm inputs and bags of rice to starving farmers, whose living conditions have been adversely affected by insecurity and terrorism, is merely "providing fish" instead of "teaching them to fish", as the Chinese proverb advises.