Many villages in Mvila want to receive the producers from other regions at their homes: for training opportunities, exchange and friendship, can we dare to refuse them ?


Nkoladom is a small village with a population not exceeding 200 inhabitants, 15 km south of Ebolowa; How wonderful! This is probably the cleanest village in our country. Here, they are waiting for the show "We expect to receive visitors here in the village, it will be a good opportunity to discover the culture of others, how they live and work at home and how they make friends," says a plump young man, mastering his subject very well. At Biba I, not far away (18 km from Ebolowa) some women heartily say they are ready to welcome visitors to their homes and feed them. We can multiply these examples by 50 only for Mvila Division with its headquarters Ebolowa to host the show. In this village houses are well constructed. Between these are dream castles that can accommodate a head of state but there are no neighbours or people, only birds and wildlife.
How, then, can we imagine that in some quarters there are worries that there are no hotels sufficient to accommodate visitors ?

Souvenirs of agric show
Imagine that at Obout, Biba I or in any village, from Megong (32km to the west and before Ebolowa) right to Mbelemam (37 km south and after Ebolowa) we decide to host farmers from other regions or guests from other countries. It is about identifying good and constructed houses and arranging them (ceiling, toilets, paint, beds and mattresses ...) to welcome visitors, dig wells to provide drinking water which is very rare in the South and to reserve, food crops even in the field that will be purchased to feed visitors, to assist young gardeners to produce and sell spices in the village to flavour meals ... To have animal proteins one can find cows in Assandjik and everywhere in the Region. And if that is not enough goats abound in the South and can be purchased. Poultries exist and it needs only to assist the poultry farmers and there is available chicken in 45 days.

The fishponds need to be rehabilitated in time for them to produce good fish. There are so many fishponds at Ndoungou at the home of the Former General Manager of SIC! A MINEPIA delegation report says that "several nursery centres and control of fishing ... have been long abandoned ..."
Fruits are being produced and one can have as much pineapples as he wants from the Nlobesse pineapple farm which, in addition to fruits, also produces juice. The list can be completed with Rock Farm jam. Rest assured that the list is not exhaustive. With all this, why would one dare to eat imported fruits during agric shows while the South is ready to do business? What we suggest is that these investments remain; the beds and mattresses, painting, drilling, cash through the purchase of foodstuffs in the villages where the guests will be accommodated, production activities (horticulture, bee farming, poultry ... for example) be revived. This is what some producers will keep as "Souvenirs of the show’


Training of farmers by farmers
Imagine a producer of watermelon that would live with a farmer in a village at the entrance to the town of Ebolowa where there are water melon potential soils not in use. The host farmer will ask his guest to tell him how he managed to produce those big watermelons. The visitor tells him how to choose the right piece of land, ploughing and many other pieces of advice that the other notes in a book (in the South, there are probably more literate rural people per km2). Imagine yet another who, marvels at the size of the pig or goat (we see most of them wondering around that are of average sizes)He will immediately want to copy from his new friend or trainer. In a few days he will give him advice, he will train him. The village farmer has received his training at home, free or more accurately paid by the show. Did you know that Benjamin M Nami, agronomist engineer, learned to produce yam tuber with long tubers at the home of farmers in the east during the Bertoua Agric show in 1981? He told us himself with humility.

The agro pastoral show of Ebolowa in 2010 is an opportunity to carry out extremely profitable projects in term of production production, wealth creation and employment, to achieve food sovereignty and upgrading of the producer. The first inter-ministerial meeting held in Ebolowa this January 21, 2010 did not take into account all these elements yet they seem to be necessary for the success of the show. The close to ten ministers spoke about the clinic on site, access roads and all the rest, but no production and producers, tourism offered by Nkoladom village for example not to talk of the aftermath of the show and more importantly the "Souvenirs of the show” which are expected by valiant people of the South. If these premises are left unattended to, the whole province will ultimately serve to enforce and the show will be quickly forgotten. Too bad!

Signs that do not reassure
The proof is that three weeks after announcing the holding of an agropastoral show in Ebolowa by the Head of the State himself, some farmers are not aware of anything. At Avoundi (37 km north of Ebolowa) Owona’s family awaits the show in 2011 and did not believe us when we told him that it was in 2010. It is serious if one considers the show as the feast for producers, production and agro-pastoral excellence. Very few producers are aware of the event. Surly, many have heard about it. Their source of information is rather the media or in gossips. On January 21, 2010 the South was not yet in the show, just 10 months of the event. "Maybe they waiting for the last hour to go round the villages, pick up farmers often with products that have no place in a real agric show to come and park on the site rubbing their hands.” It was chilling to hear the remarks of a senior MINADER staff (agronomist for over 15 years) in service in the South. These are not reassuring signs M. Nzegang translated from French by JF