Mechanical Drying System’ Adoption And Its Impact On Cocoa Beans Quality And Household Welfare At Farm Level In Central And South-West Cameroon

Cocoa is the main cash crop in Cameroon,with about 30% of GDP of agricultural products for export and processing.The crop is grown in 7 out of 10 regions in Cameroon and covers an area of about 400,000 hectares;cocoa beans sector involves about 600,000 producers and nearly 6 million of people live directly or indirectly from cocoa beans economy.In Cameroon,despite the efforts consent by the producers,despite the different agricultural techniques uses by them,the quality of their production still needs improvement.This research work was carried out in the LEKIE and MEME district,which represent respectively Central and South-west regions department of Cameroon,with the aim to assess the different agricultural practices used by Farmers to improve the quality of their cocoa beans and access the impacts of adopting MDS on household incomes,asset and poverty.Thus,one hundred and twenty-eight cocoa farmers were chosen in five districts and interviewed using structured questionnaires.On the one hand,our survey shows that to ensure a good quality of cocoa beans,many techniques are used by farmers which we found out were primary and had a huge impact on their production.Farmers face many difficulties in providing better cocoa beans quality,that reside firstly in the technique used itself,in the financial credits;the lack of extension services;the cost of inputs including spraying cost and the lack of access to energy.In view of all these,the quality of the current cocoa beans grown in those regions in Cameroon shows that farmers lack one of the key elements which is technical know-how in good agricultural management practices;even though much is been done to ensure better cocoa beans quality.New agricultural technology can provide an early solution and therefore offer a better cocoa beans quality,which will increase their incomes thereafter alleviate poverty’s rate and moreover,enable the country to benefit from this crop in the international market.On the other hand,this thesis reveals the adoption and welfare impacts of Mechanical Drying System(Technology)in Central and South-west Cameroon,using different treatment effect estimators—endogenous switching regression,propensity score matching,and inverse probability weighting,the results reveal that adoption of Mechanical Drying System leads to significant gains in crop quality,crop yields,and household incomes.Results further reveal that Mechanical Drying System has a significant poverty-reduction impact in Central and South-west Cameroon.In view of all that precede,stimulating agricultural growth largely depends on policies that stimulate adoption of technology at farm level.However,to boost and improve the quality of cocoa beans,the government should provide extension services,inform farmers about best agricultural technology,provide input subsidies,and expand their electricity grid,we recommend that cocoa mass spraying be extended to all farmers,to limit pests and diseases effects;In addition,facilitate access to credit;which will enable easy access to new technologies by farmers to better manage their cocoa beans.