Agriculture, the Real Economic Trigger

"Agricultural Revolution." This, certainly, is not the first time these words are being ushered into the mainstream of the country's economic checkered board. What is surely disturbing is the fact that the reality on the ground is not a true reflection of the whole spirit of a revolution. Where has things been going wrong, is the question on many lips.

The answer, as its always said, is not blowing in the wind so to say. Stakeholders will readily say where the hook is and perhaps what needs to be done in order to clear the so called obstacles, the greater part of which are human induced.

President Paul Biya, in his swearing-in speech tells of the need to dust the files of agricultural revolution which he believes can safely help Cameroon sail through the tides of economic malaise. Even though, one of the things that appears to have triggered the desire to revamp agriculture is the fear of the destabilizing effects of growing protectionism and isolationism among some World powers, agricultural revolution has never stopped being a trump card for effective development.

As the seven years of Mr Biya begin, the question that ought to linger in many minds, and this is surely happening, especially among the stakeholders, is what shape should this revolution take? As a reminder, the phrase "Agricultural Revolution" is often used to describe the period of technological improvement and increased crop productivity that occurred during the 18th and early 19th centuries in Europe.

This revolution got its start in Great Britain in the early 18th century and spread throughout Europe and America by the 19th century. This was a period of significant agricultural development marked by new farming techniques and inventions that led to a massive increase in food production. The Cameroon version of Agricultural revolution is surely expected to strive towards this objective.

As one of the sectors to develop in order to reduce the rate of importation and reverse the chronic trade deficit, President Biya thinks this could happen through the "modernization of production tools" and "processing of our agricultural products." For agriculture to be modernized, a number of factors must be pooled together including the acquisition of new equipment and the construction of warehouses and access roads as indicated by President Biya. The advantage Cameroon's agricultural revolution should hypothetically have over that which happened in Europe is the availability of land.

Europe had little land, hence its resolve to go for intensive agriculture which incidentally produced good yield and transformed its economy. Now that Cameroon has the land which is an important component of fixed capital, what next? In ef fect, there is nothing ...