(Business in Cameroon) - In Cameroon, Sodecoton recently organized an agro event on the mechanization of agricultural operations in the cotton-producing areas. The event organized, in partnership with Sosea, was held in Yoko-Vognha, a small locality 135 km from Ngaoundéré, the regional capital of Adamaoua.

The about fifty participants were from Cameroon, Chad, Senegal, Benin, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, France, and Belarus.

During the event, Sodecoton presented its recent research works. These range from technical itineraries on the agronomy of cotton to the agronomy of all crops that are rotated with cotton and the development of agricultural machinery from sowing to harvest.

“Sodecoton now works with 200,000 producers, 7,000 of whom account for a third of cotton production. These producers no longer need the basic technical itinerary, the basic technical supervision offered to all producers. Today, they are into innovation. Their production ranges in the order of 3 tons per hectare,” explained Sodecoton's General Manager, Mohamadou Bayero.

Renaud Éric, the head of Sosea France’s farming division, indicated he was proud to show all West and Central African industries the path Sodecoton has taken in terms of harvest mechanization and yield performance per hectare.

“Sodecoton's approach is to anticipate harvesting problems, in particular, to anticipate soil conservation problems through the so-called active sowing. As far as sowing is concerned, this experience is already showing results since the Cameroonian capital is already preserved and I would say capitalized upon for the new generations. On the harvesting side, things are in the process of being put in place. After three years of experimentation, the results will be shared with large producers that have areas larger than 5 hectares by supporting them during cotton harvesting,” he added.

S.A