Agriculture
More than 90% of the rural population of Bamenda II Council depend largely on agriculture. It provides employment to the population and also serves as a source of income to the indigenes. Most farms with very fertile soils are located across the rivers with no bridges to aid transportation. These makes farming and transportation of farm produce very tedious.
Despite the importance of agriculture to the economy, many farmers still carry out subsistence farming with the main crop produced being maize. Other crops produced though in very small quantities are beans, cassava, cocoa yams, plantains, pine apples, vegetables. The council area abounds with potential to produce all these crops in large qualities. Mix cropping is very common
here as farmers seek to maximize land use. Farm sizes are generally small. The farms are usually made up of two to three small plots located in different places. There is little use of inputs like fertilizers and pesticides and production and productivity is very low. Cash crop production is limited to Robusta coffee with low quality of the beans and the price is very low and palm nuts for
palm oil. The potential to produce palm oil, cocoa, in large quantities is high.
The insufficiency of capital poses a problem for expansion. Only local traditional methods of cultivation are still being used and these cannot exploit the land resource to a maximum. Farmer grazer conflicts constraint the establishment of large farms away from home for fear of destruction by animals. The continuous burning of the hills for new pasture has led to exposure of the soils that is causing erosion with the consequence of soil depletion.
Animal Husbandry
Cattle, goat, sheep, poultry and pig production are prominent in the council area and transhumance activities are more felt in the Bum areas. Farmer/grazer problems are very common. Crop destruction by goats, sheep and pigs is widespread and a major frustration to women. Diseases are widespread and a common problem in this sub-sector. Small ruminant production is not widespread and the populations need to be more involved in this sector to increase their income.
The limited number of CIGs is also affecting the development of this sector despite the favorable local potentials for this activity. Cattle theft is common and very disturbing and consequently discourages production. In the rainy season lightening often kills cows and grazers need a solution from the delegation of scientific research and innovation.
The traditional free range grazing is practiced and no pasture improvement program operates here. Like in the rest of the North West Region, the fern plant is ravaging the grazing land as a direct result of the poor and acidic soils caused by constant annual burning, leaching and soil erosion.