Visiting IITA DG pledges support to help Cameroon enhance food security.

This was during an audience granted his delegation by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gabriel Mbairobe.

The IITA boss was accompanied during the visit by officials of the World Bank Regional Office. The audience which was opened to the press, was attended by IITA Cameroon office officials.

Minister Mbairobe thanked the IITA for its collaborative efforts with government of Cameroon for the past 20 years.

He said government was ready to partner with IITA in addressing the challenges of food insecurity, solve poverty problem as well as combat youth unemployment in the country.

The minister then revealed that government was looking forward “to strengthening its partnership with the IITA. We are happy that IITA and the World Bank now work as a team”.

Explaining the vision of his ministry in fighting food insecurity, the minister told his guests that: “Our vision is that of government’s National Development Strategy, SND 2020-2030. For the past two years in the sub sector strategy of agriculture, we have been implementing the import substitution policy which is a presidential plan. In the ministry of agriculture and rural development, we have about seven crops which are involved in this import substitution policy. We have rice, maize, cassava, plantain, palm oil, Irish potatoes…”

Mbairobe also disclosed to the visiting delegation that government was currently running several projects to boost food production.

“We think that it is very important for us to meet the needs of local consumption. Small scale farmers are the backbone of our resilience,” he stated.

Enter IITA boss

Taking the cue during Tuesday’s audience, the Director General of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Dr Simeon Ehui, said he was in Cameroon to chat the next level of his institution’s partnership with government.

The Ivorian who has over 30 years of experience in agriculture and sustainable development, told the minister that he was “excited to know that the relation between the IITA and the government of Cameroon has been excellent. I want to applaud this cooperation”.

While regretting that despite the country’s potential, food insecurity remains rife, Dr Ehui who served previously as Regional Director for Sustainable Development for West and Central Africa at the World Bank, stated that his organization was ready to help solve problems of food insecurity.

“My organisation has already been working with the government of Cameroon. we have a partnership that has been existing for the past 20 years. We have a joint programme and the government has always solicited the assistance of the IITA in the development of this programme,” the former Director of the World Bank’s Food and Agriculture Global Practice, said.

He added that: “We want to put to scale what we are already doing and we hope that with support from international financial institutions like the African Development Bank and the World Bank, we can do more than what we are doing today so we can reverse the negative trade balance that we may have in the area of agriculture”.

About IITA

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA, it should be said, is a nonprofit organisation that works with partners to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture, with the ultimate goals of reducing hunger, malnutrition, and poverty.

IITA was established in 1967 in Ibadan, Nigeria as a result of the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations' desire to establish a center for the improvement of the quality of tropical foods.The institute came into existence with the enactment of decree 32 of 1967.

Part of the institute's initial goals was to develop a better productive farming system, the selection and breeding of high-yielding crop varieties that are resistant to diseases and pests, and strengthening agricultural research in the humid and tropic regions.