187 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 138 host community members have enjoyed an improved their food security status through home garden production over the past 12 months.

The ongoing tensions in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon for the past four years have created a prolonged humanitarian crisis, forcing more than four hundred thousand people out of their homes. This massive population movement has had a heavy negative impact on their livelihoods with subsequent deterioration of their living conditions. As a result, farmlands have been abandoned in numbers. In some places, crops have been destroyed thus creating a huge shortfall for a population of which 70%[1] rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Restricted population movements and insecurity have limited access to markets and production areas, for both producers and consumers. In January 2019, the Emergency Food Security Assessment (EFSA) carried in the North West and South West, established that approximately 1.5 million people in these regions are food insecure, while 312,154 people are severely food insecure (corresponding to 8% of the combined population of both regions).

As part of the response to this unfolding humanitarian crisis, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has mobilized the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (UNCERF) to foster improvement of the food security for the most vulnerable populations affected (IDPs, hosts communities and returnees). The response is being implemented in partnership with two local non-governmental organizations:  ASWARUDEP (Association of South West Agriculturalists and Development Programme) and CARITAS Bamenda for the South West and the North West regions respectively. In its implementation, one of the flagship activity aims to create six hundred and fifty home gardens, that is three hundred and twenty-five in each of the regions. FAO supported them in the establishment of tomatoes and huckleberry nurseries, after they received home garden inputs: seeds, fertilizers, sprayers, watering cans and hoes.

Beneficiaries of the South West region located in Buea, Tiko, Limbe, Kumba and Mamfe were trained on home garden techniques focusing on tomatoes and huckleberry production and their marketing, making it both a source for their food basket and a contribution to increased revenue. They also benefited technical monitoring from implementing partners and Government’s experts. From there, some beneficiaries have come together to form an association of common interest and are producing on a monthly basis some one thousand and five hundred baskets of tomatoes and two thousand and five hundred bags of huckleberry.

The challenges encountered here are mainly security related. The recurring ghost town days in the region and difficult access to markets areas greatly contribute in limiting people’s movements. Nevertheless, the activity is a success as the increasing demand in markets has enabled some home garden producers to extend their farm sizes, hence increasing production to meet their needs.
“Considering the interest of the populations for this activity in assisted communities, we would like to scale up in the intervention areas, notably in the North West region wherethe alarming security situation with its displacement pattern have prevented us from launching the activity so far. Hence, we hope to increase the number of beneficiaries and extend to new areas”, says Emmanuel Penn, Livestock Production Expert at FAO.

In addition to home gardening, the project includes the establishment of six hundred mini poultry units with a total of 1250 beneficiary households identified. 584 beneficiaries household (46.72%) represented IDP’s meanwhile 666 (53.28%) represented their host communities. With a view to support the most vulnerable part of the population in need, 10% of the assistance has targeted persons with disabilities (PWD), amounting at 126 households, while 70% of the targeted households were women headed.

Last but not least, it is key to take note of the good practices and lessons learnt in terms of gender and disability mainstreaming.