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Without livestock these successful Cameroon farm families will find it challenging in future to sustain their projects. According to experts they must be a steady depositing of dung in to the inlet for the bio gas unit and for all necessary procedures to be followed for the plant to function properly. Accidentally putting cosmetic oils in to the plant have caused most units not to function well. “I just discovered that because we had connected out toilet and bath to the inlet the plant was no longer working” Marie Ndifor narrated to us. The lack of adequate expertise on the part of women to manage these bio gas plants is a concern for Heifer International Cameroon. “if women who are mostly concern with running the homes are not properly taught how to manage these bio gas plants they is an issue of sustainability” Njini Victor director for the center of appropriate technology told us. Because slurry also generates a lot of weeds in the farm fields which neccesistate intensive cultivation it is feared that with income some of these farmers will go back to chemical fertilizers despite the benefits that accrue from slurry.

 

Co-opting women in to the training sessions of how to handle these plants is ongoing. The effort by some of these farm families to market this green renewable energy to their neighbors is brewing quarrels over how the bills should be meted out. While these farmers and their neighbors are exalted to share their fortunes in love some farmers not aided externally are trying to build bio gas installation units on their own. “We have experienced some poor installations which are now a source of pollution to the environment”. Achirri George a technician on this technology claimed. What ever the few challenges experienced, they are strong testimonies from the field from farmers who on one hand take the liberty to thank the development stakeholders for assisting them to improving the wealth of their environment by reducing the emission of green gases, save their forest and land potentials and for achieving their goals in life. As these farmers continuously stick together and as they show love and care in kind and cash it is hoped that food security in Cameroon is guarantee for many years to come. This report was produced with the support of The African Story Challenge @ African Media Initiative.

Accordingly these Bio Gas installation units are cheap and easy to install, simple to run and require no maintenance in the first few years after installation. The benefits came in two folds. “An almost free renewable green energy and a by product called Slurry –a very rich food crop fertilizer” Prof Ali Festus of HPI Cameroon said. Produced by action of bacteria on organic material like manure or food crop waste in airless tight conditions, the concept is simple. Through Heifer Cameroon and some development stakeholders in the country, Farmers have learned how to build and install the main parts of a basic under ground gas plant. (The Inlet, Digester, Gas Holder, and Out let). The inlet is where manure families deposit organic waste or manure. The digester is made of bricks or stone walls. It is an airtight chamber where bacteria decomposes the manure until it decomposes in to bio gas and slurry. This chamber is linked above to a gas holder where green energy is pipe to homes for cooking and lighting. Below the chamber there is an outlet through which the slurry flows and is collected as a rich food crop fertilizer for food crops cultivation. This easy to manage procedures explains why more than ten thousand farmers in the grass field of Cameroon have turned to domestic bio gas installations of recent. “Over time these bio gas installations which are constructed through micro finance programs generate the income with which these local farmers pay for the installation in their respective self help groups” Ali Festus this project coordinator for HPI said.

Farmers like Wih Linus a father of 7children in the depths of the Babanki community and along side some 21 farm families belonging to the “help the children’s future” common initiative group are now prizing the protection of their environment above all things in their community. “We are trimming utility bills and avoid cutting of trees for fuel wood thanks to the installation of these bio gas installations” Linus said. The fortunes trapped by these individual families from not paying electricity bills or buying paraffin for lighting has reverberated in to their communities. “Our children study well at home at night and we are enjoying being able to charge our cell phones” Akumbom Godlove a farmer in that community said. At the santa community some 15KM from the city of bamenda, barren soils had long frustrated the wishes of more than five thousand farmers in that community. “In agony most of our youth migrated to the cities in search of odd jobs” Chief Joe Akuforgwe in the community remarked. The introduction of bio gas slurry manure was a stitch in time that saved nine at the locality.

Aaron Kaah Yancho, K24 NEWS PAPER, Bamenda /Cameroon

 

Grass field of Cameroon: For decades making good use of the earth’s natural resources for the improvement of their livelihoods was the challenging task faced by farm families in the grass field of Cameroon. The rapid population growth in rural communities saw an encroachment into forest land for the cultivation of food crops. Unknowingly what the consequences will bring the disappearance of the forest attracted desertification and soil erosion. “It was just a matter of time as these peasant farmers started experiencing droughts” Tah Kenneth Konsum the country Director of the …..Society for the Promotion of Initiatives in Sustainable Development and Welfare SOPISDEW at the foot of the Kilum Mountain forest told this reporter. These droughts in some areas brought prolonged dry seasons and climate changes. As these farmers cultivated and planted densely on the same pieces of land, the output of their farm work was relatively low. “As a results of unfertile soils most of these farmers subsisted in poverty, unable to feed their families and to sources income for the education of their children” Kenneth remarked. In an effort to turn the tide these farming communities wanted to farm with in organic fertilizers but with no money means this was only a wish. “With no cash in our pockets to bargain for fertilizers, most of us women in the communities lived in agony” Mme Ndikum Mary a queen mother at the Akum community explained.