BY DOH JAMES SONKEY
The second biggest employer in Cameroon after the State, the Cameroon Development Corpora-tion, CDC has stroke an agri-business deal with the Institute of Agricultural Research for Devel-opment, IRAD, in order to speed up its recovery in 2022. The deal was sealed last January 5, 2022 by the general manager of CDC, Franklin Ngoni Njie and the director general of IRAD, Dr Noé Woin at a solemn ceremony in the Board room of IRAD at Nkolbisson in Yaoundé in the presence of the board chairs of CDC, Hope Sona Ebai and of IRAD, Prof Nnanga Nga.
In his speech, the director general of IRAD indicated that despite the Covid-19 pandemic and security crisis in the Far North, Northwest and Southwest regions, IRAD’s research work didn’t stop even in this crisis hit regions.
In 2021, he said, IRAD produced variety of improved seedlings in order to ensure food security in Cameroon and explained that “We duplicated over 600 varieties of banana. To ameliorate its production, CDC is using innovative measures to modernise its production and diversify its pro-duction by introducing short cycle production seedlings.”
Dr Noé Woin reassured that IRAD is very ready to continuously provide technical support to the Cameroon Development Corporation.
On his part, the general manager of CDC, Franklin Ngoni Njie while stressing that a true friend is known in difficult moments, thanked IRAD for being there for the CDC at this crucial moment,
declaring that, “Today is a very special day,” following the signing of the deal at the beginning of 2022 described as a year of ‘Total recovery’ for the CDC, Franklin Njie first of all expressed gra-titude to the President of the Republic, Paul Biya for giving them a board chair whose name brought renewed hope to CDC, which was almost on its knees due to the sociopolitical crisis in the Southwest and Northwest regions.
He explained that “CDC stroke bottom in 2019 when produce sales dropped from FCFA 58 bil-lion annually to barely FCFA 3.8 billion meaning that our company virtually ceased to exist. From 2019, 2020 and 2021, there is an upward trend towards recovery and this year, a budget has been elaborated which is going to consolidate that move towards recovery and the partnership with IRAD is very important to make that happen. Our coming here today is viewed by the thousands of CDC workers with a lot of hope and on their behalf, I want to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation for the interest demonstrated by IRAD’s management towards the sustainability of CDC.”
The Board Chairs of IRAD and CDC while stating that they are full of joy after witnessing this development, urged those in charge of the implementation of the partnership to swing into action so that it can start bearing fruits as soon as possible.
Thanking technicians who worked on the documents which have just been signed, Hope Sona Ebai said “When you look at CDC, a giant, irrespective of what it has gone through, diversifica-tion of crops will help it to survive. Research brings development techniques. I am very happy to hear that young people are interested in research in Cameroon. I will use my energy to support this collaboration that we have to make it succeed.”
Talking to reporters, Franklin Njie explained that “CDC has always been in partnership with IRAD but today’s signing of this partnership marks a new page in our relationship in that, the current crisis that CDC is confronted with as a result of the sociopolitical crisis in our area of operations have resulted to some very peculiar problems; low productivity is quite a problem now than before the crisis, the need to diversify to short cycle crops to broaden CDC’s revenue basket has become a priority today, and about 50% of CDC workers are on technical leave as a result of the crisis. To reabsorb this large number of workers, we have to engage in activities like the ones we just cited such as bringing in short cycle crops like maize etc. This partnership is supposed to enhance our move towards accomplishing that task.”
Dr Noé Woin told reporters that the partnership enables IRAD to share its research results with the CDC, train CDC’s technicians and help CDC to diversify its production by introducing short cycle crops such as maize, soya beans, beans among others.