Cameroon: Becoming a Farmer Without Financing

I am a young Cameroonian student who wants to build a career in agriculture. But my only concern is the issue of financing. I currently have ten hectares in my village that I inherited from my grandparents, and I'd like you to help me get better organized and, if possible, give me practical advice that could help me carry out my project.

Robert, Melong, Cameroon

Dear Robert,

It's important to know that already having land is a huge advantage, since the land tenure issue keeps many people from getting into farming, as acquiring land can be quite difficult. It's also worth knowing that even without financing, you can start growing on small plots and expand them over time.

To start, we'd recommend beginning with a quarter hectare, equivalent to 2,500 m2. As crops, you can plant food crops that don't require investment for small areas, such as macabo (taro), maize, soybeans, or any other food crop of your choice.

On such an area, you can plant 6 kg of maize as a single crop (not intercropped), since on a small plot intercropping wouldn't be economically profitable enough to allow for expanding the area the following season. As for seed, you can take grain from a previous maize harvest and sort out the good, large kernels to use as your first seed - in genetics this is known as mass selection.

Once you reach one hectare under cultivation, you can start raising livestock - particularly animals that are inexpensive to feed, such as traditional free-range chickens and others.