Try, Try Again … and Succeed!
Community farming was a success in M. Kaé village in 2021. Although they have worked together on a community grain bank since 2014, a lack of funds to purchase fertilizer had thwarted their previous efforts at community farming.
M. Kaé has done a great job of managing their community grain bank with support from local partner RELUFA. When it began in 2014, RELUFA contributed sixty 220-pound bags of maize and millet, with the understanding that members of the community could borrow from the grain bank during the yearly lean period and reimburse it after harvest. Thus, there is a permanent rotating stock of food in the community all year round that reduces the incidence of hunger and boosts food security. Thanks to its good management practices, M. Kaé has increased its holdings over the years from 60 to 75 bags by collecting small in-kind payments of millet as interest from borrowers.
Because of this good showing, M. Kaé was chosen to receive support from program partners to build a brick grain storage facility, buy an acre and a quarter of land for a community garden, and organic manure to fertilize it. Community members contributed their time and labor for fertilizing, plowing, weeding, and harvesting. As a result, they harvested 15 bags of millet in October 2021, an amazing achievement for one harvest!
The M. Kaé grain bank’s stock has been replenished and, if circumstances allow, some of the grain will be sold to finance other village projects, like buying a millet-grinding machine. The communal farm was deemed so successful that the village has rented the land for two more years, since the fertilization done this year will last through that period.
Cameroon North Program
Led by Presbyterian Church (USA) and Local Partner RELUFA