Trends in Land-Use Patterns and Impacts

“Best bet” Land-use Systems

Country reports

Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn in Cameroon

 

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Source file: D:\Projects\ASB\ASB Country and Thematic reports\Cameroom Final Report\Final Report&Synthesis of PhaseII-Cameroon.xml

 

Authors: J. Kotto-Same, A. Moukam, R. Njomgang, T. Tiki-Manga, J. Tonye, C. Diaw, J. Gockowski, S. Hauser, S. Weise, D. Nwaga, L. Zapfack, C. Palm, P. Woomer, , Andy Gillison, D. Bignell, J. Tondoh

 

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Additional land use systems besides those in the matrix were included in this analysis, namely horticultural cropping systems, robusta coffee and inland valley land uses.

Cocoa Systems

In southern Cameroon several of the land-use systems are already widespread. These include both the intensive and extensive cocoa production systems, which nationally account for approximately 300,000-400,000 hectares, depending on whose estimates are used.  Intensive systems are mainly found in the Meme and Fako divisions of the SouthwestProvince, the Moungo division of the LittoralProvince and the Lekie and Mbam divisions of the CenterProvince.  The more extensive production systems are characteristic of the South and EastProvinces.  From 1990 through 1996, the area in cocoa has probably declined, as some farmers have abandoned production in the face of low world and national prices.  Most of these plantations were old and had low productivity.  Labor was reduced

in both extensive and intensive cocoa systems and was largely reallocated to long fallow-intercrop rotations focused on the production of Cucumeropsis + plantain + cocoyams. There was a negative environmental impact (loss of biodiversity and carbon stocks) as this annual cropping system replaced secondary forest.  The decline in cocoa profitability and the reduced foreign exchange earnings during this period had major repercussions on economic growth and probably led to a higher incidence of poverty in the HFZ.  Despite the decline, cocoa still remains the dominant land use system in the HFZ of Cameroon and the major source of household revenues.

 

Given current and expected supply and demand conditions in world cocoa markets, it is likely that cocoa prices will remain robust in the foreseeable future, which should ease the negative trend seen in recent years.  The higher prices of 1997 and 1998 (550-650 FCFA versus 350 FCFA in 1996) have increased farmer incentives and, subsequently, input use in cocoa systems.  Input markets, which have been liberalized since 1992, are better developed today than they were 5 years ago.  This will reinforce the trend towards more intensive cocoa systems.  A high proportion of this increase will likely come from a shift from extensive to intensive production systems.  Whether there will be significant new land conversion to either extensive or intensive cocoa production is difficult to predict.  Estimates of small-holder new planting elasticities in the Cameroon robusta coffee sector (3.0) and in the cocoa sector of Cote D’Ivoire (1.6) indicate that farmers’ investment behavior is responsive to price incentives (Akiyami 1988, Gockowski 1994).  If a similar result holds for the Cameroon cocoa sector, then there is likely to be some expansion in new planting area.  To the extent that new planting could be directed to areas under short fallow land uses, net environmental gains could be expected.  If, however, the new planting occurs at the expense of secondary and primary forest, environmental losses will result.

 

Currently, cocoa is not widely produced in the Congo basin.  Cocoa expansion into the basin is a possibility but requires attention by research and extension to the problems posed by Phytoptera megakarya, a particularly virulent fungal agent of blackpod disease, as well as a possible acid soil constraint. Expansion of the systems with fruit in Cameroon is dependent on improvements in the local food marketing systems.  This could entail building more and better roads, importing more economical transport vehicles (reducing the high import tariff on commercial vehicles is a policy option to consider) and reducing fruit assembly costs through the cooperative bulking of products at strategic assembly points.

 

The impact on the environment of an increase in new plantings will depend on whether or not these systems are targeted to degraded short fallow land or forested land.  Given the choice, the producer will normally choose the latter in an effort to capture the forest rent (Ruf 1998).  Policy incentives should be targeted towards the creation of perennial crop systems in degraded lands.  This strategy should be accompanied by an increase in the productivity of food cropping systems, in order to compensate for a reduction in the area of the food crop fallow system.  To encourage the intensification of cocoa production, policies to promote the agricultural input supply sector should be considered.  One possible avenue would be to work through the various farmer organizations that are springing up across the landscape as a result of the provision of production credits, etc.  One of the major problems in the Cameroon cocoa sector is the low level of plant resistance to cocoa blackpod disease caused by Phytophthora spp.  The efforts underway at IRAD to evaluate test and diffuse resistant varieties, working with the increasingly vital grassroots farmer organizations, need to be strongly supported.

Coffee Systems

Although not included in the analysis, robusta coffee is an important cash crop in the Congo basin and is, indeed, more important than cocoa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic are all large producers (there is an estimated 240,000 hectares of robusta coffee in central Congo around the river port of Mbandaka).   Robusta coffee, which is indigenous to the forests of the region,  is a lower story tree in its natural environment, like cocoa.  When grown commercially under shade, the two systems are similar in their environmental parameters. 

 

Policy and price trends in the robusta coffee sector in Cameroon mirror the cocoa sector.  A market calamity similar to those afflicting cocoa producers in the late 1980s also struck coffee producers.  The combination of depressed cocoa and coffee markets led to the liberalization of the National Produce Marketing Board, which was bankrupt by 1992.  With foreign exchange earnings historically similar to cocoa, the impact of this decline on economic growth and poverty was severe.  The environmental consequences of depressed producer prices of coffee were similar to those in the cocoa sector.

 

In recent years, a structural shift in preferences among coffee consumers towards higher quality mild arabicas has resulted in a widening gap in the price of robusta and arabicas.  New production on world markets from Vietnam has also somewhat depressed the robusta market.  Gockowski (1994), in a study of robusta coffee planting in western Cameroon, found producers were quite pricing elastic in their price behavior (in the face of declining prices).  Assuming asymmetries in planting response do not exist, a rise in real expected prices should engender a significant planting response. 

Oil Palm

Palm oil has always been the most consumed edible oil in Cameroon.  In rural areas of the humid forest zone, most households are self sufficient, relying on  production from the semi-domesticated Dura variety of oil palm.  The bulk of production for the urban market comes from large-scale parastatal plantations (CDC, Palmol, and SOCAPALM) producing the tenera hybrid (a cross between the Dura and Piscifera varieties).  However, as urban populations have increased, small-scale producers have also adopted industrial-type plantation monoculture of the hybrid tenera variety in recent years. Whether or not this small producer movement, which has been fairly robust in recent years, continues will depend on several critical institutional issues.  First of all, the distribution system of the hybrid plants is not well developed and the market is controlled by the oil palm research unit of the IRAD at Dimbamba and by PALMOL, a parastatal producer.  If smallholder systems are to expand significantly, further improvements in the distribution and supply of these hybrid plants will be required.  However, there are long biological lags in the production of hybrid seed due to the perennial nature of the crop.  Second, post-harvest processing is required.  The ability of small producers to compete with large scale producers in the face of economies of scale in production and processing is questionable in the long-run. Economies of scale could outweigh the advantage of the lower opportunity cost of family labor, driving producer prices and profits too low.  Third, export restrictions on palm oil during the dry season period drive down producer prices.  This policy creates an artificial price below the equilibrium value.  Mitigating in favor of the expansion of the smallholder sector is the perception by producers that unlike cocoa, palm oil and its multiple products (oil, wine and building materials) can also be used to meet direct household needs in consumption.

 

As for cocoa and coffee, the net environmental impact of an expansion of oil palm systems  will depend on whether they are planted in short fallow or forest land.  The most likely candidate is for farmers to choose the latter, again because of the fertility rent they capture.  When planted to forested land, these systems tend to decrease the total carbon stock in the landscape.  However, if planted to Chromolaena odorata fallow, the total carbon stock would increase over time.  In terms of biodiversity, these monoculture systems would cause a net loss, regardless of where they were planted.  The overall contribution to the rural economy of smallholder oil palm production from 1986 to 1990 was still  relatively minor, with the exception of the area around Edea-Eseka-Makak in the western-most portion of the benchmark.  Oil palm trailed cocoa, coffee, plantains, cassava, cocoyams, and dessert bananas, as measured by total producer revenues (MINAGRI, unpublished survey data).  Thus, the overall economic impact of an increase in this sector will be felt slowly at first, as the production base is built.  At the household level, the profitability of the enterprise when targeted to forestlands indicates a significant positive impact on revenue.

 

One policy instrument that the Cameroon government could consider is to target new planting subsidies of both cocoa and oil palm systems to degraded short fallow crop rotational systems.  Under these conditions, carbon would be sequestered and, at least in the case of shaded cocoa, biodiversity in the landscape would increase.  Following the Kyoto conference on global warming, discussion of carbon emissions trading among nations has focused some attention on perennial tree crop systems in the tropics as a possible sink for carbon sequestration.  The idea of new planting subsidies paid by nations in the north in exchange for carbon credits is currently being explored in Costa Rica for shaded coffee systems.

Long Fallow-Intercrop Rotational Systems

According to household surveys conducted throughout the HFZ in the 1980s by MINAGRI, plantain is the most important commercial food crop in the zone.  Plantains, grown predominantly in long fallow/intercrop systems with Cucumeropsis mannii  and cocoyams, were the recipient of much of the labor that shifted out of cocoa when incentives in that sector declined in the late 1980s.  The increase in production in the plantain market resulted in a glut in urban markets which, in combination with the declining per capita revenues, resulted in a subsequent decline in the price of plantains.[1]  The environmental impact of this increase in slash-and-burn annual cropping has been serious, significantly lowering overall carbon stocks and biodiversity.  The exact extent of the loss depends on the acreage and type of land converted to this system.  If additional lands already in this type of long fallow-crop rotation were brought into production, then fallow periods would have to shorten and, subsequently, less carbon would be sequestered during the fallow period.  If the lands converted were in secondary forest, then there would be a one time decrease in the carbon stock, assuming that the system remained in the long fallow crop rotation cycle.  The impact on biodiversity is difficult to determine.  In the studies of plant biodiversity, older bush fallow fields were relatively rich in species and functional attributes, while the Cucumeropsis/plantain field was relatively deficient. Given the patchwork of fallow fields on the landscape required to support the long rotation, biodiversity is probably not greatly threatened by this system. 

 

Rural poverty, which increased with the decline of the cocoa sector, was probably reduced by the smallholder expansion of this field system.  However, as plantain prices declined over time, the positive effect on total revenues tended to decline as well.  An even more significant positive impact on the poor probably occurred on the consumption side, where the decline in retail price allowed the urban poor to continue purchasing plantains.

 

This system will likely continue to increase in area as long as population grows and urban tastes for plantains remain important.  Given approximately 2.9% current population growth, this system is likely to continue to expand in importance.  A possible mediating factor could be a change in tastes towards other starch products, such as rice and wheat flour, by urban populations as incomes rise. 

Short Fallow-Intercrop Rotational Systems

Among the slash-and-burn annual cropping systems in the benchmark, the short fallow-intercrop rotation is the most prevalent.  This system is likely to increase in area, in rough proportion to the increase in rural and urban population (unless of course technical change increases its productivity).  Locally, with good market access, opportunities for commercial surplus production would be expected to lead to proportionally greater expansion than in areas with poor market access. 

 

The environmental impacts of an increase in this cropping system are similar to those of the Cucumeropsis spp./plantain field.  If expansion occurs by bringing more short fallow land into production, then fallow cycles will shorten and time-averaged carbon and biodiversity will decline.  If long fallow lands are converted into this short fallow rotational system, there will be a step down in carbon stocks and, most likely, biodiversity as well.  From the standpoint of poverty alleviation and food security, this system is crucial to the HFZ of Cameroon and most of the Congo basin.  A significant proportion of the marketed production in the urban markets of the region comes from this field system and generates, for the women farmers who manage it, an important portion of their revenues.  The major crops marketed from this field type are cassava, cocoyams, leafy green vegetables (including cassava leaves) and, to a lesser degree, groundnuts and plantains.  More importantly, in rural areas this food system feeds the household.  Given the underdeveloped state of food markets in the region, most households cannot rely on rural food markets for the majority of their needs and will, therefore, continue to rely on this system to meet their consumption needs.  Given this fact, agricultural research targeting the productivity and sustainability of this system is vital to the strategy of taking pressure off the forest margin.

Horticultural Cropping Systems

One of the most rapidly growing cropping systems in the more densely populated portion of the benchmark is the intensive cultivation of horticultural crops.  These systems have been integrated into the short fallow-intercrop system through an extension of the cropping period (i.e. an increase in the “Ruthenberg” index of cropping intensity).  Typically a tomato or okra monocrop (with inorganic fertilizer often applied) is followed by the traditional groundnut-based intercrop.  This phenomenon is a relatively recent event, with the introduction of intensive horticultural techniques occurring only in the last 20 to 25 years.  These systems are vastly more dependent on chemical inputs than any other cropping system in the forest margins benchmark.  This is largely because of the difficulties posed by the humid and warm climate that tends to augment pest pressures.  The profitability of these systems can be very high, with gross revenues surpassing $2,000 ha-1 in one season.  However, they are also very risky and require a significant management input not only in production and pest management, but for marketing as well.  Their heavy use of inputs also limits their extent to those areas in which input supply markets are well developed.  A similar diversification of agriculture in the humid zone has occurred in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, especially in areas with regular and reliable market access.  In the Lekie administrative division in the northern portion of the forest margins benchmark, approximately 11,000 ha are now planted to these intensive systems.  In terms of economic growth, these systems generate significant forward and backward linkages and have a relatively large regional multiplier effect.

InlandValleyLand Use Systems

The dominant focus of this analysis has been on upland land use systems.  Another important land type in the region is the inland valley.  This land type in the Congo basin is characterized by several natural vegetation types, including hardwood swamp forests, raffia palm swamp forest and papyrus reed marsh.  The first two vegetation types present major problems for clearing and land preparation for agricultural purposes.  In certain areas of the Congo basin, inland valleys have been profitably used for the aquaculture of Oreochromis nilotica (in particular BandunduProvince of the Democratic Republic of Congo).

 

Within the forest margins benchmark, the agricultural use of inland valleys for paddy rice production was at one time required by the colonial regime, a practice that was widely resented by many farmers.  With the exception of the area near the Gabon-Equatorial Guinea border, rice cultivation in these valleys no longer takes place in southern Cameroon. 

 

Their major agricultural use within the benchmark is for dry season production of green maize, and in the urban perimeter of Yaounde for the intensive production of lettuce, leafy vegetables and other horticultural crops.  They are also used to a lesser degree for aquaculture of Oreochromis spp.


[1] In 1988 the average annual price of plantain in the Yaounde market was 129 FCFA kg-1; in 1989 the price fell to 85 FCFA  kg-1  and continued to descend to 60 FCFA  kg-1 in 1993.