FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL AFTER HARVEST FESTIVAL AND VALUE CHAIN SUMMIT

The 5-year long Socio-Political (Anglophone) Crisis in the North West Regions of Cameroon, alongside the COVID 19 Pandemic in general has completely shut down all means of livelihood and survival especially for Youths and Women who are the most affected and most vulnerable in these Regions.  Agriculture which seemed to be the major source of income and livelihood for an average Citizen of the North and South west regions is completely shattered as the conflict evolves and escalates in both Urban (Semi-urban) and Rural areas in these regions. However, the destruction of farm crops and farm produce after harvest alongside the decline in Agricultural activities due to lockdowns/Ghost towns in particular and insecurity, in general, has completely destabilized the Agricultural Value Chain and food systems, leading to food insecurity, hunger unemployment, and extreme poverty in these regions, internally displacing of 725,000 inhabitants especially women and youths into in neighboring towns/cities region under who live under deplorable conditions and circumstances, while rendering some 60,000 inhabitants (Nigeria) as refugees.

There is an urgent need for a solution to bring back livelihood in these regions amidst the crisis and one of the key focus areas to target with the recovery plan is creating an atmosphere for employment that targets the most affected group and most vulnerable population (youths and Women). Our Preliminary scoping studies involving stakeholder consultations and analysis of secondary data indicated several sectors in which youth and women employment may be created in the North and South West Regions and Agriculture amongst many others is Key area of intervention because this sector is capable of stimulating the emergence of other secondary and tertiary sectors that will ensure maximum returns on limited resources while creating the most needed impact as far as the atmosphere for youth and women employment are concerned and we are proposing the following initiatives:

1. KIAGRO: A Food and Agricultural value chain Technology and Digital Marketplace” for all actors and stakeholders with the use of New Technologies (ICT) that provides access to Agro Credit, financial management, communication, and digital marketing tools to farmers, as well as Agro Credit, input, market information and knowledge base to enhance transparency and accountability.

1. FAMEN: Food and Agricultural Micro Enterprise is a 3-year program for intensive commercialization of agriculture to provide employment opportunities for over 10,000 youth and women every year by Enhancing productive capacity and improving local producers through Rural Household Producers (RHP) and Small Holders Producers (SHP) Initiatives. This target audience will be trained to use KIAGRO, the Food and Agricultural Digital Marketplace to enhance Transparency and Accountability in the growth of Agro Business industries in the Northwest Regions of Cameroon.

For any solution aimed at addressing this problem effectively, it should deal with a multi-stakeholder approach and we are proposing the FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL AFTER HARVEST FESTIVAL AND VALUE CHAIN SUMMIT FOR NORTH WEST REGIONAL ECONOMIC RECOVERY as a strategy to bring together stakeholders from the government and line ministries (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries, Ministry of Commerce, Small and Medium-Sized enterprises), Agricultural input and equipment Vendor and manufacturer, Financial Institutions (Banks and MFI), Research and Agricultural scholars from Universities within the framework of this summit and Festival.

The FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL AFTER HARVEST FESTIVAL AND VALUE CHAIN SUMMIT FOR NORTH WEST REGIONAL ECONOMIC RECOVERY are designed to introduce KIAGRO and FAMEN initiative to actors and stakeholders, service providers, partners, and investors in the Agricultural sector, and to work collectively with them to rebuild the broken food and agricultural value chain in NW and SW Regions of Cameroon.  Through this platform, for the first time, many actors and stakeholders in the agricultural value chain framework, including Rural Household Farmers and Small Holder Farmers, have equal access to real-time data and computational power making possible more effective selection and timing of product-to-market decisions, provision of information, appropriate technologies, recommended input and access to microcredit made possible via the KIAGRO and FAMEN platforms.

Goal

The goal is to establish and strengthen the Food and Agricultural Value Chain with Digital and online Technologies that Bridge the gap between Farmers/Local Producers, equipment/input manufacturers, merchant and promoters and end-users

General Objective:

Improve access to input, Technology, Knowledge, market price information, and agricultural Credit to boost and enhance production, processing, and marketing of Food and Agricultural product for Rural House Hold producers and Small Holder Producers in the North and South West Regions of Cameroon.

Milestones:

The program will oversee the following major activities and milestones within this 12 month

1. Organize a Roundtable Conference for 500 stakeholders from the public/private sector, academia, research, and Civil society to Design the new vision for Agriculture and set milestones
2. Organize Training of 500 major actors and promoters in the field of agriculture on the use of KIAGRO, the Agricultural Value-Chain Technologies, and Digital Marketplace to enhance transparency, accountability Agribusiness
3. Organize training of 1000 local farmers and groups to join the Rural Household Producer (RHP) and Small Holder Producers initiative, the Agricultural Value-Chain Technologies and Digital Marketplace to enhance transparency, accountability Agribusiness
4. Organize a one-month Virtual Pre-Planting Digital Fair targeting over 3000 to 5000 participating farmers online and over the broadcasting media in collaboration with agricultural equipment and input vendors to ensure that all farmers have the appropriate equipment and input as a promotional and subsidized rate for the effective farming season.

Organize the 2 days FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL VALUE CHAIN SUMMIT AND AFTER HARVEST FESTIVAL that will oversee the participation of over 1000 participants physically via prize award ceremony, and 5 to 10,000 participants virtually with advanced technologies.