Yaounde, Cameroon, April 5 - Between 500-600 hectares of hybrid cocoa farms are being opened in Cameroon's fourth cocoa-growing region of the East province, the general manager of state-run Cocoa Development Authority, or Sodecao told Dow Jones Newswires Saturday.
"We're in the process of creating between 500-600 hectares of new cocoa farms in the East province," Sodecao boss Jerome Mvondo said. "We've supplied farmers with over 650,000 seedlings, but they want more to open new farms."
It is the second move in a month by Sodecao distributing hybrid cocoa seedlings to farmers. Some 280,000 hybrid cocoa seedlings developed by the body were handed over to farmers' groupings in Cameroon's second main cocoa region of the Center province. Sodecao is a government-run body charged with development of cocoa. It works with international and local agricultural research institutes to develop and promote the cocoa sector.
"The cocoa seedlings we're distributing to farmers are hybrid species, which are high-yielding and resistant to pests," said Mvondo, who was just returning from a tour in the East province.
"In three years these new farms will start producing cocoa pods, instead of the old species which took up to seven years to bear," Mvondo said, adding "this project falls on the line of the government raising Cameroon cocoa production to 200,000 metric tons by the year 2010".
The seedlings, Mvondo explained are not given for free to the farmers, "they buy them at very subsidized rate: 250 (CFA francs), instead of XAF350 per seedling".
Some 120 hectares of hybrid cocoa farms were opened in the East province last season, Mvondo told Dow Jones, saying his organization has a target to plant up to 4 million cocoa plants.
"Almost every family is interested in this project. Some of the farmers are asking us to negotiate with local authorities to get more land so that they can open more farms," Mvondo said, explaining cocoa farmers' enthusiasm for "higher prices being paid for cocoa beans locally and internationally".
Cameroon is heading to a close of its main crop cocoa harvest, which routinely runs from September/October through February/March.
Officially, the cocoa season in Cameroon starts from August of each year through mid-July of the subsequent year.
Cameroon produced 179,239 metric tons in the 2006-07 season, up from 164,301 tons produced in the preceding season, according to recently published CCIB data.
Cameroon's government has outlined a strategy to raise its annual cocoa output to at least 200,000 metric tons by the year 2010, hence the government support to farmers.