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 Printable version |
From crisis to devaluation of the CFA franc: technological and social changes in intensive domestic farming among the Bamileke of western Cameroon |
Cahiers Agricultures. Volume 4, Number 1, 45-51, Janvier-Février 1995, Option
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 Résumé
Article gratuit
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Author(s) : Isabelle Grangeret-Owona |
Summary : Due to their dependence on fertilisers and market outlets, Bamileke coffee farmers have been badly hit by the recent economic crisis. The situation was exacerbated by the soil being overworked and its fertility maintained only by the massive use of chemical fertilisers, unprecedented in African peasant family farming. In addition, the farms were old and poorly kept up, fertilising was elusive and exorbitantly expensive, and farmers were unable to benefit from devaluation and the 1994 boom in coffee prices. Given the state of indebtedness, relatively little diversification - which might have alleviated some of the problems - took place\; often, this was merely represented by a decrease in land-use intensity. Disturbing social rules intended to manage high population densities in limited areas resulted in social breakdown, hand-in-hand with increasingly careless farm management jeopardising the land’s fertility. Is the "family model" of intensive farming doomed to disappear? Whether it survives or not will depend on the players and their aptitude for social innovation, and on the presence of a "real" agricultural policy. |
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