Itoe Hansel, Delegate, Ekwa Farms CIG
Will you be one of those farmers to represent the South West in Ebolowa ?
Definitely, I will represent the South West in plantain chip and plantain flower categories.
How did you feel when you learnt the government was re-launching agric shows ?
It’s a lofty development but we still remain skeptical until we see how farmers are treated.

How would you like to be treated at the agric show ?
We expect farmers to be lodged like all other participants attending national workshops, like those of the various arms of government. Farmers have always been relegated, I don’t expect that in 2010 farmers will sleep on the ground, they will not have basic lodging, feeding or basic transportation.
Are you skeptical of the way agric shows are organized ?
At the regional level we were not allocated basic transport. Some farmers were transported to the agric show and at the end of it; they had no transport fare for farmers to go back. This became a major embarrassment to us farmers.

What would you want the organizers of the Ebolowa show to do for you farmers ?
It’s very important for the farmers’ platform to be part of the organization so that much of the budget for lodging will go to the farmers not government officials.
So farmers have the problem of who manages agric show money ?
We think so.

What part willd you like the farmers’ organization to play in the management of the finances ?
Farmers don’t want to be the managers of the money they just want to be treated fairly. Now how do you feel when government officials are lodged in Hotels for forty, fifty thousand francs and the farmer doesn’t have any allocation for lodging? So we expect that the allocation for lodging farmers should be handed directly to the farmers’ platform.
Will the shows have any significant improvement on agriculture in the country ?
It’s a farmers’ festival and at the level of farmers in the South West, preparations are in high gear, the enthusiasm is there, we are looking forward to meeting farmers all over the national territory, exchange views and compete at different levels with our produce.

How would you like your produce to be judged ?
I will like to be judged by the quality of my produce.
Would there be independent judges ?
Honestly, we have respect for the staff of the ministry of agric and livestock, they have been trained by government and they are the only ones who have the technical expertise to assess farmers
by B.D.S.


“It will make farmers to meet and exchange ideas,”

Bisah Charles, Farmer, Bambui
«I think it is a good idea for the agro pastoral show to start again after close to twenty years. It is good because it will make farmers to meet and exchange ideas with farmers from other parts of the country. When these farmers meet, they also exchange market strategies and see how other farmers grow other crops in other parts of the country. If the President has seen that it is a good think to re-launch this show, find because it also serves as a market place for farmers and because it will boost the agric sector.

But when I look at how the sub divisional and regional agric shows have been managed in the past, I am skeptical because farmers carry their produce to these mini agric shows and the prizes they win do not reflect their produce and do not meet their desires and this makes them feel very reluctant to participate in agric shows. I am afraid that at the national level, it will not be any different. Most of the time farmers mobilize produce and it takes a long time for them to transport to the agric show ground but most often, after the show, the farmers are abandoned to themselves and they find it difficult to transport the produce back.

It will be good for government to support the farmers as it used to do for them to have good produce to bring to the agric show. The President did not say exactly when the show is going to take place so that farmers should be preparing with a date in mind. Government should also support the farmers who have the potential to participate in the national agro pastoral show by subsidizing their production so that they can prepare and present exhibits that are good enough to win prizes. It will really be difficult for a farmer to participate in such a national event on his own.

Government too should prepare good prizes so that a farmer who wins a prize should not be disappointed with the prize he wins because it is either not useful to him or not even worth his exhibit. The show should be organized in a way as to make it a market outlet so that farmers do not carry their produce there and bring it back. People should come there ready to buy. Things like livestock cannot be taken there and brought back to the farm. We hope that it will also provide new markets in other regions because there are things that are produced in one region which are lacking in another region.» M. N.