AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND PERFORMANCE IN CAMEROON, 1960-1980 (ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT)

This study attempts to identify the problems and constraints that have faced agriculture in Cameroon and provides an assessment of the effects of government policies and planning efforts in agriculture from 1960 to 1980. The study evaluates the performance of the agricultural sector in view of its problems, policies and contributions to the general economic development of Cameroon.;The criteria for judging the performance of the agricultural sector--in view of the policy goals and objectives, the means and measures used and the problems affecting it--are based on the growth rate of agricultural export and food crops and a comparison of the planned production targets with actual production. In all, analysis of the performance of agriculture from 1960 to 1980 reveals that despite the problems and constraints facing agriculture, Cameroon is not an agricultural crisis country nor is it likely to become one soon. The government's policies and planning efforts have had some positive impact on agriculture. However, this impact has not been as great as might have been expected had several policy deficiencies and production problems been removed. This result is a reflection of the low levels of target achievements, low levels of productivity and the continuous existence of a relatively large traditional subsistence agricultural sector. With the available natural resources, both food and export crops can be expected to increase, but for this to occur, significant efforts to strengthen the agricultural sector would have to be directed towards raising the level of productivity and to attempting to alleviate the rather serious problems of investment allocation in agriculture.;A policy outcomes framework based on the Action Systems Model is used to evaluate the performance of the agricultural sector. The framework allows for full consideration of the policy actors, the policy goals and objectives, the quantitative policy means involving direct and indirect investment by government in agriculture, and the institutional policy means.