Between 2020 and 2023, ASARECA has invested US$ 660,000 to catalyze agricultural transformation in Cameroon through key beneficiary projects. Through these projects 271,951 million beneficiaries were reached, 529 stakeholders were trained, and 51 ha of land were brought under improved TIMPs. The following are highlights of the projects undertaken:

Facilitating transfer of wheat varieties

ASARECA received a request from the Director General of Institut de Recherche Agricole pour le Développement (IRAD) in July, 2022 to support the Institute to source bread wheat genotypes from ASARECA Member States for testing in Cameroon agro-ecologies in order to identify the best performing lines. The Cameroonian Government had just decided to boost wheat production locally to assuage consequences associated with over dependence on wheat imports. ASARECA promptly sent out these requests to the sub-regions wheat hubs in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Kenya and brokered material transfer arrangements.

Subsequently, Sudan in the last quarter of 2022 transferred the sought germplasm including five acknowledged best performing (especially tolerance to heat stress) varieties (Bohaine, Amel Ageeb, Imam and Milan/Pastor/Debeira) from Agricultural Research Corporation, Sudan to Cameroon. Following the experimentation, IRAD then requested through the same channel, larger amounts of seeds for selected promising lines. The material obtained comprised:

(i) Three sets of 20 entries of 3rd Elite Bread Wheat Yield Trial (3rd EBWYT 2022-2023) for testing on three sites. The lines targeted dry, hot irrigated environments with relatively mild winters and prone to heat stress during most of the growing season. Each set consisted of three replicates. These entries were selected based on their performance under the heat stress environment at the ICARDA-ARC Heat Research Platform, Wad Medina, Sudan;

(ii) Five packages each with five adapted genotypes for five demonstration sites. So far the plots have been well tendered and harvest at all the sites is expected by April 2023. Very promising varieties in terms of earliness and agronomic performance have been observed at the various sites especially Meskine, Wakwa (trials) and Meskine/Mbé (demonstration plots) where the harvest has been done.