By Bakah Derick in Bamenda
The Bamenda III Council has handed over
agricultural tools to farmers in the municipality. The tools were handed over
Thursday August 17, 2017 by the Mayor Fongu Cletus Tanwe during a ceremony at
the council premises attended by agriculture stakeholders in the subdivision.
Speaking during the ceremony Tedgi Immaculate
Bamenda III Subdivisional delegate for agriculture praised the council and the
mayor for continuously thinking of farmers despite not organizing the
traditional annual Mini Agro Pastoral Show at the close of 2016 due to the
uncertainty that reigned at the time.
“Conscious of the part Agriculture plays in
our economy, the goal of our Ministry is to transform subsistence Agriculture
to second generation agriculture by the year 20135 through the use of improved
planting material, other farm inputs, mechanized farming to increase farm size,
improve on value chain (processing) and hence improve on yield for marketing.
Our beloved Mayor is leaving no stone unturned to support farming activities in
his jurisdiction to meet this goal. He went to every nook and cranny lobbying
for his farmers. All the farm equipment to be distributed is through the hard
work of the Mayor in particular for his relentless efforts towards the farmers
of Bamenda III Subdivision.” She said.
Explaining the criteria for the distribution
of the tools she said “as concerns the distribution of the equipment, criteria
was used only for the sprayers. It was allocated only for gardeners and coffee
farmers selected at random reaching the four corners of the Sub Division. As
concerns other equipment farmers were selected at random from the four corners
of the sub-division. Be extremely appreciated of what you will receive today.
We did our utmost best in allocating the equipment to farmers. It was a very
difficult task.”
Talking for the farmers, Gam Augustine Vice
president of Bamenda III Farmers’ Cooperative expressed gratitude to the
council saying “Indeed we are grateful for these tools; they are going to solve
a very important problem within the farming sector of this division.” He will
also assure the council of the effective use of the tools to improve on their
respective farming activities with the hope for more yields next year.
Fuchi Thomas
Song was also on hand to encourage the beneficiary farmers to use the equipment
to improve farm produce while preparing for the next mini agro pastoral show.
“Farmers are advised to work in groups in a bid to support the limited MINADER
staff available on the field. Do not individualize the equipment make it
available for the community. Apply for ACEFA funds and improve your farms. Use
chemicals properly” were amongst the advice he gave the farmers.
Ngelah Brunhilder after receiving a truck
told the guardian post “I am so happy to receive this truck because I know it
will go so far to help me especially during this harvesting season like
carrying of corn, cocoa yams, fire wood
from the farm; not only me also my neighbours and the entire neighbourhood will
benefit from this truck. I am so happy for what the Bamenda III Council has
done.”
We are
so grateful especially for the gridding mill that has been given us. My women
in Ndzah ha ve been suffering too much carrying corn from Ndzah to town to
grind. So this time we are so happy and we praise God for our Lord Mayor for
what they have done to bridge the gap distance especially that we will not be
sending children down again. Sometimes we sleep without eating when we want to
eat fufu corn and so we are going to do our best to install it in a proper
place and have somebody who will be working for us also to fern us some small
finances to develop our area.” Councilor
Mirriam N. Jumbam reacted.
The tools according to Mayor Fungu Cletus
have amongst other things have motorized oil and , mechanic oil presses,
trucks, grinding mill, wheel barrows, generator sets, rain boots, sprayers, dig
axes. The Mayor hopes the tools will
transform agriculture in his municipality.
Tags
Headlines