부산대학교 도서관

Peri-urban Agriculture in Yaounde: Its Relation to Poverty Alleviation, Economic Development, Biodiversity Conservation and the Environment. Rapid urbanization coupled with economic stagnation and the underdevelopment of transportation and food marketing systems have increased the importance of peri-urban agriculture production for employment and food security in Yaounde. Peri-urban agriculture is particularly important in terms of urban food supply for highly perishable products like traditional leaf vegetables and lettuce, and products that are bulky and costly to transport over long distances like fresh cassava and certain fruits. Intensive and semi-intensive peri-urban poultry and pig production is significant in terms of urban supply. Marketing of traditional leafy vegetables and fresh cassava offers employment to over four thousand women. The production of poultry and pigs is also a source of employment and revenue for a great part of urban population. Intensive production systems using organic manure and agrochemicals have been developed for traditional leafy vegetables and lettuce in inland valleys during the dry season. The abundance of labor relative to land availability in conjunction with nearly immediate access to agricultural markets for outputs and inputs have engendered these intensification processes. By concentrating intensification within the urban periphery of Yaounde, indirect environmental benefits include the reduced pressure on forest margins and thereby the slowing of deforestation due to slash and burn agriculture. Major constraints peri-urban agriculture in Yaounde is facing include pests and diseases, a lack of producer credit and inadequate extension services.