Growth and Decline of rice Production in the Logone and Upper Nun Valleys of Cameroon, 1960-1994

Abstract

The Logone and Upper Nun valleys rice production zones are among the early development projects that were put in place by the Cameroon government after independence and reunification in 1961. These two pilot projects were part of the economic development agenda that boosted local agricultural production and provided employment opportunities to many citizens. As a cash crop, rice cultivation in these two basins was not only geared at meeting exportation goals; it also kept keen interest on satisfying the domestic demands. Given these crucial objectives, the enterprises geared in prosperity from the 1960s to the mid-1980s when the two production basins began experiencing some setbacks cardinally presaged by the effects of the economic crisis that gained momentum by 1986. The structural adjustment programme of the Bretton Woods Institutions introduced deregulating measures that did not make things better for the rice agro-industrial structures. The poor corporate practices contributed to reversing the prosperity paradigm of the rice development projects in the Logone and Upper Nun valleys from production for exportation basins to committing the country for the importation and subsidization of rice. Largely based on the historical methods of data collection and analysis, the study maintains that the macro-economic, environmental and managerial crises negatively impacted the state efforts at vulgarizing the rice economy.