 Muskwaari - the counter seasonal sorghum variety
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With the Sahara
desert stretching out over Northern Cameroon, the population there
struggles to secure its food supplies. While the unfavorable climatic
conditions in the Saharan regions cause at times sudden problems of
catstrophic proportions, high poverty levels pose a chronic threat for
the population's food security. At harvest time, farmers sell off their
crops to ensure the educational and other needs of their family. With
market prices low, business men go back and forth between the villages
to stock up on supplies and thus create food shortages. Once food has
become scarce, they put their supply back on the market against
exorbitant prices.
Traditional family granary |
As the families run out of their own supplies, they
are forced to sell their livestock or borrow money to purchase cereals.
By this time prices for cereal are soaring, while they are plummeting
for livestock. In this way, the population's living standards and food
security continue to spiral down.
Food Sovereignty
When the region faced severe food shortages in 2005, an ad-hoc committee
of RELUFA member organizations ADERSA,
FoSal
and ADESE
worked with the network coordination to study other food security
programs. They met with national and international organizations and
churches to learn about their respective experiences. The committee
then discussed how to achieve as a national network food sovereignty
for vulnerable communities in Northern Cameroon
A community granary
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The establishment of a community cereal banking system was identified
as the most appropriate strategy to break the cycle of food scarcity,
soaring market prices, chronic malnutrition and dependency on food
distribution programs. The village granaries will allow for
self-governance of food supplies by the villagers and curb the
speculation mechanisms that generate poverty.
Read more about RELUFA's 2006 pilot project, see an overview of the first 18
village granaries, and images of harvest time
The Strategy
 A pile of newly harvested grains bought up by RELUFA to constitute a first stock for one of the grain banks
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At harvest time RELUFA provides the villages with a working capital to
allow the granaries to buy up supplies from their farmers and start
operating as cereal banks. These stocks are stored in the granary,
which will close its door after harvest season. The cereal bank will
open up its door when the community runs out of food. It will sell the
bags against an agreed upon price or on credit to needy families within
the respective groups. Surpluses will be sold outside the community at
the market price. The money earned on the sale of this supply serves as
working capital to buy up cereals from the community at the next
harvest and to reconstitute the stock in their granary for the next
period of shortages. At the same time, families that borrowed food from
the cereal bank pay back in kind.
Training
RELUFA provides sensitization meetings in the targeted communities for
the groups to better understand the community cereal banking system.
Community management committees are installed in each of the villages
and trained in the operations, management and supervision of their
cereal bank.
Impact
RELUFA's Food Sovereignty Program entails a strategy that addresses at
the same time hunger, poverty and economic injustice.
Bags of cereal in a village granary |
Hunger: The community's permanent stocks ensures security of its own
food needs. At the time of food shortages the group sale's price for
members will be 5,000-10,000FCFA ($10-20) per bag lower than the market
price. Families can easier afford to purchase food or take it on credit
for inkind repayment at harvest time. One bag of cereal will feed one
family of six persons for about one month.
Poverty: The group member price will allow the community to save
between 500,000-1,000,000 FCFA ($1000-2000) per year on a stock of 100
bags. Rather than spiralling down into poverty by having to sell
livestock or to take out loans, the money and/or livestock remain in
the community. Also, if a village group manages to eventually augment
its number of bags, i.e. build up savings, the sale of these surplusses
will give additional capital and increase the living standards of the
community at large.
Economic Injustice: The practice of speculation feeds on the high
poverty levels within the population. The mere fact that farmers need
to buy back the produce of their own hard labor, while paying more for
it than that they had earned on it in the first place constitutes an
injustice. By creating community cereal banks and purchasing the stocks
from the small farmers before the businessmen will do so, RELUFA curbs
the exploitation by speculators. In the longer run, the network will
work with member organizations and communities to lobby with local
authorities to put in place policies that prevent the sale of local
produce to business men from neighboring countries. |
