Book Description

The issues raised in this book are related to socio economic development, and not only development per se but sustainable development. Income and revenue are generated and not expected to fall from the sky. Income is obtained if there is production of goods and services in the economy. A country is less developed, emerging or developed based on socio economic criteria, whose foundation can be traced to the production of goods and services or business. It would be very strategic for any country to capitalise on its comparative advantages in order to have a place in the provision of goods and services in the world market. Today, Africa cannot compete with China or other Asian nations in the domain of electronics and ICT for example.There are no production industriues for computers, cell phones and other minor electrical appliances in Africa. Therefore Africa is doomed to import all of these as of now. However, Africa has a comparative advantage on some of the major agricultural products that can enable it push export revenue and reverse balance deficit. For example, Cameroon can reverse its balance deficit in 10 years time by stopping palm oil imports. This may even take a shorter time (2 years) if Cameroon exports part of its projected production as outlined in this book. The cultivation of oil palm is dependent on many natural resources, human resources and ecological processes that interlink them. Oil palm cultivation necessitates good soils, appropriate climatic conditions, water resources and manpower, and since few trees are planted per hectare (143/ha), companies need vast expanses of land. The use of vast areas of land for the cultivation of oil palm should not lead to the destruction of ecological niches and human settlement. This is the new strategy for sustainable oil palm plantation establishments. This book describes the development of an economic cluster in Cameroon consequence of a knock-on-effect sparked off by the establishment of a hypothetical figure of 1 million hectares of oil palm plantation. It describes the socio economic advantages that come with such development. It also gives some light on how the crop can be grown sustainably and ways to mitigate conflicts in the sector.