I am Ndutu Marie from ERuDef Institute of Biodiversity and Non-profit Studies, reading Agro-forestry Management. A recent field trip which took us to Bamenda, Batibo, Bafang and other areas to see the various agro-forestry practices carried out by the various farmers in these areas under the US Charity Trees for the Future (TFTF) was really amazing.
Our first stop was in Bamenda town where the Country Assistant Director of Trees for the Future, Kingsley Neba, gave us a clue of what was ahead. After this, we, together with Benjamine Addlestone from TFTF-USA and one of ERuDeF’s partners from Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment, USA, John Munsell, visited the first farm at Mankon where we met a local farmer, Shu Joram, who took us to two of his agro-forestry farms.
In the first farm, we noticed that Shu was practising the life fencing system of agro-forestry with the use of acacia. Neba later explained that acacia is used as windbreaks and aids in reducing loss of soil moisture while the leaves are used to provide nutrient to the soil. This was really awesome and educative because I was seeing in concrete terms what I had learnt in class a few days ago.
The most interesting part was when the farmer took us to his garden. Here we saw how he used grafted trees and propagators to grow the maggoted and grafted branches. In another farm, Neba schooled us on how the farmer used alley farming; that is using acacia leaves to fertilize the soil for food crops like cassava and fruits like pineapple, mango, pear and others which the farmer has integrated. This was really enriching. In fact, I was so happy to learn how to graft and maggot on different mango and plum trees; something I could never learn in class alone.
From Mankon, we left for Mendankwe, Up-station, and visited Nfongang Franci’s farm where he practises the same agro-forestry system but for his nursery that had different species like Voacangher americana used to cure leprosy; neem, used for curing malaria and Prunus africana used for curing postrate cancer. Then we went to Kugwe on to Bafang in the West Region precisely in Bakassa village where we met a group of farmers who also took us round their farms and nurseries.
It was amazing indeed, seeing how farmers integrate the agro-trees with bee farming and making ends meet.
