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5 SOLUTIONS TO FARMERS’ PROBLEMS AND FOR SUSTAINABLE
LAND USE
The study revealed that farmers’ agricultural production system is subject to number of
constraints ranging from socio-economic to agronomic, and that the sustainability of the system is
becoming questionable as a consequence of shortening of fallow length, which lead to soil
degradation and decreasing productivity. A number of strategic actions or solutions are presented
in this chapter which may contribute to alleviating agronomic production constraints and to
achieving sustainable land use.
5.1 SOLUTIONS TO FARMERS’ SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND AGRONOMIC
CONSTRAINTS
The actions and solutions to production constraints identified during the study were discussed and
formulated conjointly by farmers, researchers and extension agents. The results of the discussion
are given in Table 5.1.
5.2 THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE PRESENT SHIFTING CULTIVATION SYSTEM
Shifting cultivation is an agricultural practice where a short period of mixed cropping alternates
with a long period of natural fallow. The role of the natural fallow in the system is to recycle
nutrient elements for soil fertility restoration and to suppress weeds, pests and diseases (Nye and
Greenland, 1960). As long as there is enough land and the population pressure is low, this shifting
cultivation will remain an efficient system of soil management, but only for subsistence farming.
Soil can recover its optimum equilibrium under natural fallow only if this fallow is left
undisturbed for at least 10 years after cropping (Yemefack and Nounamo, 1999). The shifting
cultivation system to be applied is a ‘rotational fallow system’ in which a farmer comes back to a
piece of fallow land only after 10 years. But the actual practice in the area is that farmers are
more and more shortening the fallow length, because of uncertain land tenure rights, market
driven production and the soil chemical gains from burned vegetation. Most farmers (64%) are
clearing Chromolaena fallow (3-5 years), or bush fallow (7-9 years) for food crop production.
Under these conditions, the cycle of weed, pests and diseases control, and nutrient replenishment
is broken. Physical and organic soil fertility are drastically reduced, and the vigour of the forest
re-growth also. This renders the shifting cultivation practices unsustainable.
The sustainability of shifting cultivation is a dilemma. On one hand, farmers must produce more
for consumption and revenue gain in order to move from poverty subsistence farming to food
security and poverty alleviation. This means shortening the fallow by cropping the same piece of
land frequently with the risk of soil degradation. On the other hand, shifting cultivation involving
the clearing of long fallow land must be practised to efficiently restore soil fertility after cropping.
For a sustainable management of the forest zone of southern Cameroon, solutions to two main
problems must thus be found:
- The shortening of fallow length leading to soil degradation; soil conservation may be the
solution; and
- The sustainable but non-prosperous subsistence farming practice destroying the forest
ecosystem.
Income generating farming may be the solution.
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