Appropriation foncière, pratiques agricoles et enjeux environnementaux à Bafou-Nord dans les monts Bamboutos (Ouest Cameroun)

• Main Authors: Hervé Tchékoté, Martial Nguedia Melachio, Edwige Caroline Siyapdje
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Société Royale Belge de Géographie and the Belgian National Committee of Geography 2018-05-01
• Series: Belgeo
• Subjects: land appropriation; agricultural practices; crop protection products; environmental challenges; Bamboutos Mountains; West Cameroon
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/21085

In West Cameroon, some dynamics of peasant adaptation have been observed in the aftermath of the coffee crisis, through the implementation of new cultural practices including commercial staple crops and horticulture, which have generated various forms of reconfiguration within rural communities. Land issue is at the core of this process: land has become an object of greed as a resource to take up new socioeconomic challenges. This paper dealt with this new problem of land in relation to agricultural and environmental challenges. The work is based on a survey among 150 farmers, 15 crop protection products’ salesmen and 4 key persons of the agricultural sector in North Bafou. It was found that the land pressure is the key factor of the complexification of the land access. Despite this pressure, North Bafou is one of the main production basin for staple crops and horticulture in West Cameroon; This leadership is based on new agricultural practices which have a big impact on soils and water resource.