(Business in Cameroon) - The Cameroonian Minister of Agriculture announced a partnership with the National Observatory of Climate Change (ONACC). Under this framework, both parties will collect and analyze climate and weather data across the territory, and make them available to farmers to boost agricultural production.

According to the minister, this strategy will help acquire the necessary tools to better identify climate variations and come up with solutions to boost agricultural yields in the country. Such an experiment had already been conducted in the cocoa-coffee sector, a few years ago, by researchers from the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD). The initiative was launched by the Cocoa-coffee inter-professional association to “know what to do in the face of climate fluctuations.”

“These include hotter weather, longer drought episodes, irregular rainfall, and greater parasite pressure in plantations. The data will also be useful in the case of cocoa and coffee trees that flower earlier than expected and whose flowers fall off suddenly; coffee and cocoa trees that seem to be 'dying' from heat; a considerable drop in production," explained Michel Ndoumbe Nkeng, who conducted the investigations.

To reverse this trend and ensure good yields for producers, Ndoumbe Nkeng said, IRAD researchers had initiated work to develop varieties of cocoa and coffee plants better adapted to climate change.

 BRM