Cameroon:
State mechanisms for the promotion of oil palm plantations
One of the main characteristics of Cameroon’s
economic policies since independence is their institutional promotion
of large-scale industrial plantations. Between 1971 and 1981,
the state allocated to them no less than 60% of the public funds
reserved for agricultural development. The most important feature
of these large-scale plantations was – and still is – their domination
by only a few agro-industrial firms, highly protected, oligopolistic,
and dependant on capital-intensive technologies. The establishment
and the expansion of these plantations involved big investments
(loans) and created a strong dependency on foreign capital as
well as on foreign technologies and management.
The recent most important initiative
promoting oil palm plantations is the 2001 “oil palm project”
of the Ministry of Agriculture. Considered as a “national priority”,
this project was launched within the framework of a “volontarist
modernisation of the agriculture”. It aims at promoting the development
of the agro-industrial sector as well as the “village plantation”
sector – which is mainly a way of subcontracting in favour of
the agro-industries and which embodies the “new era” of oil palm
extension in the country. The objective is to increase the plantation
area by at least 5000 ha per year in order to produce 250,000
tons of palm oil by 2010.
However, a few other initiatives were
already in place during the 90s: The state promoted the development
of so-called village plantations through three main projects.
The “Pépipalm” project – financed by the European Union and coordinated
by the Ministry of Agriculture – aims at technically supervising
and financially supporting a network of private nurseries of selected
oil palm seedlings. The project implemented a system of monitoring
and regular controls. Globally, these nurseries sold to small
planters about 45,000 plants in 2000, 73,000 in 2001 and about
130,000 in 2002. Another project is the “South West Development
Authority” (SOWEDA) which promotes different actions in rural
technical education and in the supervision of village plantations.
Also, the “Project of Rural Development Centres” (PPDR), created
in 1993, focused its attention on the promotion of contractual
village plantations.
At the international level, the main
programme promoting oil palm plantations is a result of the initiative
“heavily indebted poor countries” – launched in 1996 by the G7
and managed by international financial institutions. In order
to be eligible for this category, a given country has to meet
several strict conditions and notably has to produce a “document
on poverty alleviation strategy” which must show how resources
obtained through debt alleviation will be used. In Cameroon, this
document includes a specific section devoted to the oil palm sector.
Its goal is to increase the oil palm production and productivity
in order to cover national needs (in deficit) and to improve international
competitiveness. The development strategy is based on: (1) the
development of the agro-industrial sector (through privatisation,
increase in production, and implementation of new contractual
relations with village planters); (2) the development of the village
sector (use of improved seedlings, technical education, increase
in productivity); and (3) the implementation of an improved research
framework, mainly through the state-owned Institute of Agricultural
Research for Development (IRAD) which is particularly active in
the production and selection of oil palm seeds. The World Bank
and the FAO are key actors in the promotion of this programme,
while France provides with financial and technical support, notably
through the CIRAD (Centre de coopération internationale en recherche
agronomique pour le développement). The funding of the programme
has already reached about 6 million euros and at least 8,000 ha
of selected oil palms had already been planted in 2004.
This brief review of the main programmes
promoting oil palm plantations in Cameroon shows that the role
of the state – as well as the role of international actors – were
and continue to be important, even during the age of so-called
non-interventionist neo-liberalism.
By Julien-François Gerber, e-mail :
JulienFrancois.Gerber@campus.uab.es.
This article is based on C. Bakoumé et al. (2002), Revue du secteur
rural. Rapport palmier, Yaoundé: IRAD/CIRAD/IITA/FAO ; and on
M.-A. Monfort (2005), "Filières oléagineuses africaines",
Notes et études économiques, n°23, p. 55–85.
