Cameroon in depth

Our programme in Cameroon, run through our partner Heifer Cameroon, is one of our newest. Yet already, farmers we work with are discovering how clever use of resources such as land, water and livestock can enable them to prosper. We work in three areas here – the equatorial rainforest of the south, the humid rainforest of the central region, and the arid Far North Province – and adapt our work to suit the very different demands of each.

Strengthening people

In recent years, Cameroon’s economy has steadily improved – but rural communities have largely missed out.

Men in the southern and central areas of the country often seek work in the cities, leaving their wives to run the household and the farm. With our help and support, these women are now beginning to overcome barriers such as lack of education, resources and problems accessing credit. They are also now taking steps towards building decent livelihoods for their families.

For many people in the Far North Province, a reliance on cash crops such as cotton and rice leaves them vulnerable to price fluctuations. With our help, they are now adapting their farming methods, and discovering how they can increase food security for their families.

Farming and animals

In the rainforest zones, ownership of animals is very low, and diets are protein-poor. So we provide small livestock including goats and grasscutters (sometimes also known as a cane rat, an animal that grows to about 8kgs and is considered a delicacy in parts of West Africa), which add milk and meat to their owners’ diets. We also provide training in how to set up kitchen gardens using the animals’ manure.

In the Far North Province, competition for scarce resources sometimes leads to disputes between herders, who need large areas of land to graze their animals; and agro-pastoralists, who wish to open up more land for cultivation. Send a Cow works with agro-pastoralists to show them how to get more crops out of their existing plots so they do not need to encroach on other lands. We also provide sheep and some pigs for breeding, giving people a source of food and an income in the lengthy gap between harvests.

Given the remoteness of the Far North Province, people struggle to fetch water and take goods to market. So we supply some donkeys to relieve the burdens on these people – especially children. And because donkeys can also be used to pull ploughs, families are able to break up their land quickly, in time for sowing in the rainy season.

Types of animal

We work in two rainforest zones in Cameroon – both of which are under threat from farming and hunting practices. As soil fertility drops, farmers are forced to ‘slash and burn’ the forests to clear more land for cultivation. And in order to add protein to their diets of staple crops such as cassava, they hunt bushmeat, destroying the forests in the process.

For this reason, our work in Cameroon has a distinct environmental focus.

By providing rainforest farmers with grasscutters for breeding, plus training in natural farming methods, Send a Cow reduces such environmental devastation, while ensuring that families get the nutrition they need.

And in the far North, where farmers face three months of intense rain, followed by nine very hot and dry months, we place a great emphasis on training in water harvesting and soil conservation techniques to help farmers beat the acute environment.