DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITIES AS AGENTS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHANGE: AN HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE UPPER NUN VALLEY DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY IN THE NDOP REGION OF CAMEROON, 1970-1995

INTRODUCTION

The centrality of rural development in poverty eradication efforts in Africa is no longer a matter of conjecture. A consistent approach to achieving this goal has, however, remained problematic. Consequently, development experts have been caught up in a morass of heuristics evident in the number of development models that have been adopted and jettisoned over the years. Cameroon, like most African states, has used parastatals as the principal agents of socio-economic development. The result has not been entirely a success story. On aggregate, Cameroon has registered a mixture of successes and failures.

In 1970, the Cameroon government, in the wisdom of the era, established the Upper Nun Valley Development Authority (UNVDA) in the Ndop region. Formation of the UNVDA was informed by the view that development involves transformation of the traditional pre-capitalist social formation with the type of technology and social organization that characterize the advanced developed nations. According to this view, development is characterized by increasing national output and a high per capita income. The UNVDA was widely expected to bring the benefits of modern agriculture to the local population, as well as launch the region on the trajectory of sustained economic and social development. In consequence, since its inception, the UNVDA has tried, albeit with severe difficulties, to accomplish its stated objectives, which include the following: to introduce new crops and technology in the region; to provide basic ancillary infrastructure and, in general, try to raise the standard of living of the local populations. Some of these goals have been accomplished, others only partially and yet, a good deal abandoned for various reasons. The cardinal interest of this paper is not to catalogue the successes and failures of the UNVDA but, rather, to assess the extent to which the UNVDA has influenced social and economic change in the Ndop Region within the time scope of our study.

Although social change includes changes in the social, economic, political and religious spheres of life, this study concentrates largely on the social and economic aspects of such change. Change could be exogenous or endogenous depending on where the change agent comes from. Bearing this in mind, it becomes apparent that changes introduced by the UNVDA were essentially exogenous. The attempt was mainly to improve on the indigenous situation. The extent to which these changes affected the people of Ndop will form the focus of the study.

Ndop Region consists of thirteen villages, namely: Bamunka, Babungo, Baba I, Babessi and Bangolan to the east, BaIi Gashu and Bali Gansin to the West, Bamessing and Bamali on the gate way from Bamenda, and to the south, Balikumbat, Bafanji, Balikumbit and Bambalang situated near the River Nun. These thirteen villages are coterminous with the Ngoketunja Division of the North West Province of Cameroon. The region shares common boundaries with Kom in Boyo Division to the northwest, with Tubah Sub-Division to the west and with the River Nun and Bamboutus Division in the West Province to the South.1 The area of study covers a total of 1,151 square kilometers and lies on an altitude of 1,100 meters above sea level.2

INTRODUCTION OF NEW CROPS AND THEIR IMPACT

The decree creating the UNVDA allowed the corporation an unrestricted latitude to experiment on a wide variety of crops suited for the Ndop ecological zone.3 Following a period of experimentation,4 the UNVDA settled for the cultivation of rice initially and later, maize, soya beans, and green beans. Of these four crops, rice has received more attention than the others. This is not only manifested in the number of farmers engaged in cultivating the crop but, equally, in the total acreage of land allotted for its cultivation.

First, Ndop is endowed with ecological conditions favorable for the cultivation of rice. It has a relatively long rainy season and swampy soil, both of which favor rice cultivation.

Second, Cameroon's second five-year development plan of 19661971 on which the establishment of the UNVDA had been based had as one of its main planks, the desire to significantly increase the production of rice in the country.5

Many of the crops adopted by the UNVDA were considered quite appealing because of their dual roles as subsistence and cash crops. John Tosh has stressed the overwhelming predilection of African farmers for crops, which can be held back for domestic consumption in times of bad harvest; that is to say, crops which yield income for farmers and also act as famine reserve.6 A careful examination of the four crops would show that they all fit into Tosh's paradigm.

Of the several crops introduced to the Ndop ecological zone, rice has had the most profound impact on the people and the economy. This is no frivolous assertion. The unwavering attention paid to the cultivation of rice, the vast expanses of land allotted to its cultivation, its ubiquity in the region and the proportion of the population engaged in its cultivation are all indices of its importance. The current study will limit its inquiry on the impact of rice in the Ndop region from 1970 to 1995 (see Table 1).