Government Action, Government Inaction, and Food Production: Central Province, Cameroon

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Book chapter

Title:	Government Action, Government Inaction, and Food Production: Central Province, Cameroon
Author:	Lewis, Barbara C.
Book title:	Coping with Africa's Food Crisis
Year:	1988
Pages:	55-74
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Cameroon
Subjects:	cash crops international trade food production agriculture Development and Technology Politics and Government
Abstract:	Although Cameroonian food production has stayed ahead of population growth to date, some appraisals of future trends - based on declining per capita productivity in agriculture, declining agricultural labour supplies, overcropping, and stagnating cultivation techniques - are pessimistic. It is questionable whether the Cameroonian mix of State intervention in export crops and nonintervention in food crops should be continued in the future. This paper examines the interaction between export farming and food production in the Yaounde area, particularly the nature of trade-offs between food and cocoa production for government elites; possible institutional carryovers from export crops to food farming in marketing, agricultural extension, and input supplies; and allocational decisions among men and women in peasant households. Notes, ref.