Preparation
The maiden agric show that held at the then BTTC in Buea from the 9th – 11th March 1973 has a lot to be grasped from given that the then President used this show to launch his Green Revolution. The preparation of the event involved all government services, the party, statutory and public corporations, business men and the general public. This was of course a national event that attracted international and national media.
From the 1973 agric show report starting that 9 973 321FCFA was raised as revenue and 9 603 229 FCFA was spent from a bank account created specifically for the event in Buea, one understands why even those who organized the event were bold enough to propose recommendations for future agricultural shows in the country.

Budgeting
Budgeting is usually a very tricky issue because people are always interested in fallouts from the events. During the Buea show the Provincial on the spot committee under the leadership of the then Governor Enoh Tanjong created a bank account for the event and when they discovered that the 4 million FCFA from government was not enough to organize the event successfully, they resorted to other forms of raising revenue within the context of the event. See table for the total income raised and the amount spent according to their report.

Setting up committees
The national organizing committee of 10 members headed by the secretary general of the ministry of agriculture, Joseph Chongwain Awunti was set up by the minister to coordinate activities of committees in the provinces. The on-the-spot provincial committee in the South-West, headed by the then governor, Enoh Tanjong that also set up the various sub committees was set up. It is this committee that set up the committees in charge of constructing the stands, publicity, transport, finance, entertain-ment… On the ground the governor, the show report says discovered that there was no money and his appeal produced over 3.5 million FCFA for the event.

Selecting exhibits
This was the responsibility of participating provinces. According to the show report only the best were selected. Non-perishable exhibits were put in the stalls on the evening of the 8th while perishables like vegetables were put in the morning of 9th march before the arrival of officials. Prominent exhibits were farm crops, handicraft, agricultural machinery, livestock, timber, traditional costumes and merchandise of all descriptions.

Judging the exhibits and awards
Judges were appointed from each of the participating provinces and they started their work in the morning of the 9th March 1973 and finished on the 10th of March. Each exhibit was registered and given a number and the name of the exhibitor was kept separately by the show office. According to the final report, “when the reports of the judges were received, the names of the winners were then entered and prizes allocated” to them. The report of the three day event also states that “graded certificates and cash prizes were awarded to winners of each subject, while honorary diplomas were awarded to firms, public organizations … for contributing to the success”.
























From the above revenue and expenditure effected by the organizers of the first agric show in the country one discovers a balance of 370 092 as presented in their report. This is of course an indication that though the show was announced on 7th December 1972 and held from 9th to 11th March 1973, the organizers still succeeded to raise funds for the show in addition to what the government added to make the event the success many of them claimed.
All purchases were done by checks signed by the two persons designated by the on-the-spot committee to collect money from the bank account.

Suggestions from the organizers of the 1973 show
Invitations
The on the spot committee recommended that invitations should always be given earlier and to the right persons because late invitations to some dignitaries caused them to stay away.

Prizes in Kind
The committee suggested that prizes in kind should be bought in advance and carefully labelled and audited to serve winners the trouble of transporting, confusion during the ceremony and other disturbances that make the event dull. They proposed that coupons should then be prepared for each grade of prize in kind; these coupons the committee said should be given during prize awards to enable the winners collect the articles afterwards from the organizing officers. In turn the committee recommended, the officer should render a full report of the distribution of prizes in kind and full statement of coupons received
Compiled by Bangsi Daniel Song with reports on the 1973 Agro-Pastoral Show from the National archives in Buea