E3 Journal of Environmental Research and Management

E3 Journal of Environmental Research and Management Vol. 5 (3) pp. 047-053, March 2014; © E3 Journals; ISSN 2141-7466

A cameroonian community development incidence of a three decade rise-fall rice economy on NDOP plain in the upper nun valley, Cameroon

Abstract

This paper examined the community economy of the population of the Ndop plain prior to the priming of rice cropping. It evaluated the infrastructural achievements to individuals and the community accruing from their adoption and involvement in the cultivation of rice. The study held these achievements as significantly beneficial to the community’s development contrary to some perceptions of the advent of rice cropping in Ndop as a mixed blessing. The innovation diffusion mechanisms propelled by the Upper Nun Valley Development Authority (UNVDA) yielded significant increases in rice farm sizes and rice incomes. The farmland area of cultivated wetland rice increased by 6 735 percent, in 37 years, passing from 23 ha in 1970 to 1 572 ha in 2007. The success story of this rice production basin has had sturdy spatial signatures on the plain land use and socio-economic infrastructure. This paper then suggested initiatives to preserve protect and uphold rice culture and ecological rice agriculture in this unique wetland production basin of the Western highlands of Cameroon.

Keywords: Community lifestyle, development infrastructure, dynamics, monoculture, Ndop, production basin