Cameroon, December 2019

COURSE REPORT (CARD Regional Training)

MINADER, CAMEROON

1. Background

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER) of Cameroon together with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) supported Technical Assistance project called PRODERiP (Project for the Development of Irrigated and Rainfed Rice Cultivation) hosted the first CARD regional training in Cameroon. It is a five-day training, from 9^th to 13^th December 2019, inviting 32 participants from six central African countries, namely Cameroon, Gabon, Congo Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and Burundi, all of them are the CARD member countries. MINADER launched the PRODERiP in 2011 and currently its phase 2 has been in operation, to contribute to the target of doubling annual paddy production from the level of 360,000 MT in 2017 to 750,000 MT by 2030.

In the first day of the training, the participants paid a courtesy call to their embassies in Yaoundé, to discuss their objectives to visit Cameroon and also to share the support from the Japanese Government in the rice sector development in each country in the Central Africa region, which was announced at the occasion of TICAD7 (7^th Tokyo International Conference on African Development, August 2019).

2. Objectives of the training

A. Impart skills and knowledge to participants on productivity improvement
B. Share experience on quality improvement through better post-harvest handling
C. Enhance participants’ knowledge on seed production

3. Training Programme

The training programme has been divided into five modules, as follows:
– Introductory module where good practices in harvesting and post-harvest procedures and quality criteria were presented;
– Second module on experience sharing through the presentation by the participants of the situation of the rice sector in their countries;
– Third module on rice production techniques;
– Fourth module on seed multiplication; and
– Fifth module on harvesting and post-harvesting techniques.

At the end of each module, a question and answer session was held to promote better understandings of the participants on the topics.

Following these training sessions, a field visit was organized for observing how the acquired knowledge and skills are utilized on the ground.

The details of the training programme (in French) are illustrated below.