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Theme: THE DEGRADATION OF WETLANDS AND ITS SOCIO ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS IN NDOP CENTRAL SUBDIVISION, NORTH WEST PROVINCE CAMEROON
Page 60
local farmer on the average is entitled to a farm size which ranges from 0.22 ha to 0.44 ha. The lowest average farm size per farmer occurred from 1984 to 1985 during which signals of economic crises were felt by the U.N.V.D.A and from 2003 to 2005 which reflects the present situation during which the company’s financial output is experiencing serious recession.
Nevertheless, in spite of its present crumbled financial state, the activities of the U.N.V.D.A. are presently being blamed for having failed to carry out sufficient Environment Impact Assessment (E.I.A) studies before undertaking on extensive cultivation in the wetlands of the upper Nun basin. In an interview with the Director of the U.N.V.D.A. , his opinion on this was that, “even though an E.I.A. was not so much taken into account during the 1970s, at least every body who attains primary school knows that the cutting down of trees leads to massive erosion”. Beside erosion, the clear-cutting of wetlands to rice fields has led to a massive destruction of habitats for several aquatic species.
Nowadays rice cultivation has led to another practice referred to by Kisife (2006) as seasonal crop rotation. This is a practice in which (unlike before where after cultivating and harvesting rice, fields are not cultivated until the next season) rice fields are cultivated with seasonal crops whose growing periods hardly exceed 4 months .e.g. vegetables, maize, pumpkins etc. These are planted when rice cultivation has not yet began or has just ended. In the past, rice fields were at least left to fallow until the following season, but due to the rising demand in food crops and the need for food security by an ever-increasing population, these fields are worked all year round. It begins at about the 6th of July each year when plots are cleared and nurseries established. By the 10th of July, 25 days old seedlings are transplanted. After about 28 days (i.e. about 8th August), the planting season ends and weeding commences. It is followed by the application of fertilizers which continues to about the 9th of September. By about the 10th of October, bird scaring is intensified to avoid the grains being destroyed by migratory birds. This is done along side the application a second and last round of fertilizers. From about the 11th of November to the end of December, there is massive harvesting being done on rice fields. Rice fields appear completely bare and exposed to the dry season heat until the advent of the rains from about the 15th of March. During this period, rice fields are tilled and ridges are created. Rice stalks are buried under these ridges and at times fire is set on them. When the rains intensify around the end of March, vegetables, groundnuts, beans, cocoyam and pumpkins are planted. These are harvested progressively until July when rice cultivation starts anew. This is a cyclical chain which puts the wetlands under constant pressure leading to their degradation and loss in several areas. Figure 13 illustrates this cyclical change of events in the rice fields.
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