THOF accompany famers to improve plantain production
Introduction
In most communities in Cameroon, plantain is a staple food that contribute to source of nutrition for many households. However, in most instances the cultivation of plantain is underexploited due to the lack of adequate technical capacity and insufficient planting materials. Plantains, though having the potential to adapt to a variety of agroecological climate, its productivity still remain a marginal activity due to the diverse challenges some of which are diseases related, technical capacity and little incentives to pool vibrant and youthful population with innovative mindset into the venture. The use of poor quality planting material (suckers) has resulting delayed production cycle and poor harvesting most agricultural setting hence leading to unsatisfactory returns on the effort put in place by farmers which had led to discouragement amongst plantain farmers.
In other to revive farmer’s interest in the production of plantain, the Tropical Horticultural Foundation (THOF) team believing in the introduction of new and sustainable farming techniques to the local communities is embarking on a mission to rekindle farmers in the production of plantain through the setting of a planting multiplication system; a nursery and a demonstration farm at Diongo (Ikiliwindin Mile 12), , Meme division, Southwest Region of Cameroon. Farmers are being trained on how to produce their own in vitro propagation plantlets from the nursery to the farm. Hence they are drilled on best management practices on plantain production from nursery and farms so as to get maximum benefit to improve livelihood. This pilot phase of the project come at a time where food crises and inflation is surging around Africa and Cameroon and so an important aspect of addressing such challenges is to improve on current method of production so that community can achieve food self-sufficiency. It is in this backdrop we want to encourage others to support and join the THOF mission to make these communities a plantain distribution hub.
Construction of Propagator
Propagators can be built with wooden plants, plastics or blocks having a dimension of 1m width with variation in length depending on the production objectives , it depth should be 25 to 50cm depending on the size of the corm to be propagated with sealed base to avoid direct contact between the substrate and the ground . A sheet of perforated polythene, sand or gravel can be added to the bottom so as to allow drainage of water during watering.
The propagator is then filled with light colored sawdust as these contain less poisonous substances that can be harmful to the growth of plantlets. A framework of 80 to 120cm is built above the seed bed of the propagator with two slopes for easy runoff if it rains and the propagator is sealed with transparent polythene which serves as a greenhouse for proper development of plantlets.
Give small statistics about the pilot project
- Number of propagators
- Number of suckers that initially went into the propagators and number of success plantlet weed
- The number that survive at the level of the nursery
- And how many have been planted
The task has been a challenging one but we thank God we were able to achieve these for a start.
