Supplies of Maize in Cameroon © Reinnier Kaze / IRIN News

The core problem for poverty reduction is not hard to identify; the World Food Programme describes Cameroon as a food insecure country and has further demonstrated that food intake is lower now than in the early 1980s. The result is that 19% of young children are underweight and the child mortality rate is rising rather than falling.

Although up to 70% of the population is dependent on agriculture, the government allocates less than 3% of the national budget to the sector, barely a third of expenditure on the military and far below the 10% commitment of the 2003 Maputo declaration. Fertile land is not fully utilised and the country is dependent on food imports; for example, less than 15% of rice consumption is produced locally.

The rapid escalation of food and fuel prices that occurred in the first half of 2008 therefore hit Cameroonians particularly hard. Riots in several cities were the most serious for a decade and the government was forced to acknowledge that food security cannot be left to the vagaries of world market forces. Radical targets to double food production by 2012 have been introduced, supported by subsidies for seed and fertilizer. Meanwhile prices remain high in relation to household ability to pay, creating an uncertain outlook for poverty reduction.

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