(Business in Cameroon) - According to Éveline Ouokam, National Coordinator of the Potato Re-launch Support Programme, twenty tonnes of improved potatoes from the 2013 crop have begun to be harvested. They will produce a total of 500 tonnes of improved varieties of which a portion will be made available to the nation’s farmers.

Ms. Ouokam revealed that “the harvests completed over the last two weeks have already yielded 220 tonnes” of potatoes. In Cameroon, potatoes are cultivated mostly in the West and North-West regions which make-up 80% of national production, according to the Minister of Agriculture.

The same source also indicates that 17% of Cameroonian potatoes are exported to sub-regional countries. Yet, this production, which has been vacillating between 220,000 and 400,000 tonnes for ten years, based on various figures, hardly meets national demand which is estimated at one million tonnes. The sizable deficit in production is primarily due to the use of traditional potato varieties, which have lower yields of approximately 3 to 6 tonnes per acre, while some improved varieties can yield 10 to 20 tonnes per acre.