Farmers to get cottonseeds from Chad, Cameroon

Chad and Cameroon have agreed to provide cottonseeds for farmers in the Central African Republic and gin their cotton to be harvested during the 2002-2003 season, government-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Friday. Quoting government spokesman Zarambeaud Assingambi, the radio reported that Chad and Cameroon would also buy the country's cotton during the same season. He said that CAR minister for agriculture, Pierre Gbianza, had toured Chad and had reached an agreement with the government on the cotton. "Cameroon is also disposed to do the same," Gbianza said. Described as the country's breadbasket, the northern CAR was badly affected by six months of war between government and rebel troops from October 2002 to March 2003. The cotton crop for the 2001-2002 season, estimated at 8,000 mt, was looted from a textile factory in the north and the 2002-2003 crop is yet to be harvested. Cotton is the third revenue-generating activity for the CAR, after timber and diamonds. So far, farmers have not received seeds for 2003-2004 season that usually begins April-May. A Canadian humanitarian NGO, Oxfam-Quebec, announced recently that it would distribute 18 mt of groundnut seeds to farmers in Sibut, 185 km northeast of the capital, Bangui. In April, UN agencies appealed for US $9.1 million to assist those who had been affected by the fighting in the country, saying that about 150,000 farmers urgently needed seeds while 1.2 million people were in need of food rations.