(Business in Cameroon) - The African Development Bank (AfDB) officially launched the second phase of its Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation- TAAT in Cameroon. The ceremony took place on October 24 in Yaoundé, with the active participation of the government.

Christopher Suh, who's in charge of the program for Central Africa, explained that TAAT-II will focus on sharing useful farming methods with farmers and others involved in farming. “This is being done through existing government-supported projects financed by the AfDB and other funding agencies,” he said.

As a reminder, in July 2022, the AfDB announced it would disburse an additional $27.41 million (nearly CFA18 billion FCFA) for phase II implementation in beneficiary countries. The TAAT initiative was launched in 2018 to increase the productivity and incomes of farming households in 36 low-income African countries and give them access to climate-resilient technologies. Specifically, the aim is to double the productivity of crops, livestock, and fisheries, by making proven technologies available to more than 40 million agricultural producers by 2025. "This will make it possible to produce an additional 120 million tons of food and lift 130 million people out of poverty," the AfDB said.

In Cameroon, the program focuses on improving the production of maize, cassava, soybeans, rice, beans, and aquaculture. According to Christopher Suh, TAAT-I enabled the country to produce 3.5 million tons of pre-basic seed and 105.5 million tons of basic corn seed. In addition, some farmers have been trained in fry production, and over 100,000 fries have been produced locally.

"In the first phase, Cameroon missed out on certain areas because we were not sufficiently informed about the program. That's why we organized this awareness-raising workshop and launched phase 2 in Cameroon, where all stakeholders come together to figure out how to deal with various agricultural issues in the country. This will drive agricultural development in Cameroon, which aligns with our President's desire to see Cameroon adopt modern agriculture and create jobs and wealth for young people and women," said Gabriel Mbairobe, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (Minader). The workshop, which concluded on October 25, aimed to create a shared strategy for using available technologies to double the country's agricultural productivity.