15/04/2010 (All Africa) - The crop is a great income earner but nut thieves and other hurdles are a threat to industrial production.

Tropical dwellers across the continents have palm oil as staple ingredient in their meals. Food experts testify that it provides the necessary fats for the body and as such generates the required energy for the consumer. Yet, palm oil is not only for food, it serves for other industrial products such as soap and other detergents. In Cameroon , palm oil is produced at both individual, and at industrial levels. The South West Region of Cameroon stands tall in the mill of palm oil. The rich volcanic soils of the South West offer fertile fields for the cultivation of palms. The receptive soil has pushed many into palm farming; thereby offering gainful employment and thus alleviating poverty. Such giant industrial plants in the area include the pre-independence created Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), the PAMOL Estates in Lobe (Ndian Division) and the Mukete Estates with headquarters in Kumba (Meme Division). Smallholders, mostly found in Ndian Division, are not left out in the thriving palm sector. Production levels remain huge though a common threat stands in the path of expansion for the palm sector. The defiance is chiefly nut-theft. Be it with the CDC or the PAMOL, palm nut-thieves prowl day and night to harvest the combs in the various farms. The hoodlums have even installed local mills known to everyone in places like Mutengene and Mondoni.

Following the Fako Senior Divisional Officer's visit to CDC palm plantations recently, the police has dismantled some six local oil mills in Mutengene and handed to the CDC headquarters in Bota for whatever results. Nut-thieves had prior to the police-swoop, reigned unperturbed, attacked and even butchered plantation guards leading to the admission of six of them from Mudeka into the Tiko Hospital.

Palm production hurdles

In Ndian Division, nut-thieves have constituted subjects of court cases; leading many of them to the Kumba prison. Several meetings were held jointly by administrative authorities aimed at curbing the phenomenon whereby it was even agreed to encourage and subsidise private farm production. To fight this cankerworm at its own level, PAMOL thought of subsidising palm seeds for small holders who would undertake to sell their produce to PAMOL.

Thieves are not the only threat to palms. Snails and slugs, if not checked, ravage and constitute a "physostigma" to palm farmers. The phenomenon was so alarming some 15 years ago and teething "phytosanitary" measures were employed by the CDC to arrest it. After the incident, the Ekona Research Centre began developing varied and more adaptable palm seeds.

Bad roads are a handicap to evacuating palm cones from farms, and as such much of it gets bad in some individual farms.

Despite the difficult side of palm oil production in the South West, the area remains that of high yields resulting in both local and foreign consumption of palm oil exports from here. Palms are such useful trees that they have numerous utilities apart from oil. Kernels from palm nuts are equally highly solicited for soap and other pomade production.