Cameroon has signed an agreement with Israeli company Ekobell to develop 10,000 hectares of rainfed rice farming in the country’s northern regions.
Valued at €150 million (about CFA98.4 billion), the project is designed to increase national rice production and strengthen the agricultural sector in northern Cameroon.
According to project projections, the three-year program is expected to produce 46,700 tons of paddy rice, equivalent to 31,289 tons of milled rice. Once operational, this output would account for about 18% of Cameroon’s current production of high-quality milled rice, Business in Cameroon reported.
The farmland will be spread across several sites, including Sirdjam and Pola in the North region, as well as Mbé in the Adamaoua region.
The initiative is expected to involve about 8,000 farmers and create additional indirect jobs in agricultural production, logistics, and rice processing.
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The project builds on technical studies conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization with funding from the African Development Bank.
These studies were carried out under a program focused on improving the use of water resources for agriculture, livestock, and fisheries in the Far North region.
The initiative supports Cameroon’s broader goal of significantly increasing domestic rice production. According to the country’s Medium-Term Economic and Budget Programming Document for 2025–2027, Cameroon plans to triple rice output from 140,710 tons in 2024 to about 460,000 tons by 2027.
Reaching that target would be a major step toward the longer-term objective of 750,000 tons by 2030, equivalent to an estimated 97% self-sufficiency rate.
This ambition is part of the national rice sector development strategy, which has an estimated budget of CFA385 billion.
Despite these investments and ongoing projects, domestic production is still expected to fall short of demand, as rice consumption, already estimated at 576,949 tons in 2020, continues to rise due to population growth and changing dietary habits.
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Image Credit: Freepik
