The Forgotten Green Heroes

We are grateful for the opportunity to have met and worked with 41 local communities around Mount Cameroon National Park (MCNP) during our research field survey in 2013. Our project was focus on assessing the level of community involvement in the MCNP REDD+ conservation projects. Results showed that food insecurity, malnutrition, land grabbing and poverty were some of the factors preventing full community engagement in MCNP interventions. Providing alternative livelihoods to generate new income streams (animal husbandry and aquaculture) and inter-spacing fruit trees in crop farms were highly recommended to enhance food security and local adaptive capacity to climate change threats. Our research will be useless if we cannot lead the changes recommended in our own publications. Suzy-Farms inclusive business is focus on addressing these issues of food insecurity, poverty, unemployment and ecosystem restoration by rehabilitating degraded land through permaculture. Can be scaled globally to improve livelihoods and restore ecosystems.

Timber exploitation has become a major cause of deforestation in tropical countries. The slash and burn farming practice has further degraded deforested land and there is need to reduce emissions from deforestation and land degradation to mitigate climate change threats. Climate change, population growth and land grabbing for large scale projects have also increased the level of food insecurity in Sub-Sahara Africa. The government of Cameroon also banned the importation of chicken in 2005 and this led to further shortages of animal protein. The mostly cereal-based diet is also deficient in proteins and often leads to malnutrition. Suzy-Farms is a purposed driven inclusive venture which seeks to address issues of food insecurity, poverty, malnutrition, well-being, employment, land degradation and the provision of alternative livelihoods to enhance local adaptive capacity to climate change threats and community engagement in ecosystem restoration.

Suzy-Farms engages in rehabilitating degraded forest area by establishing productive edible forest through permaculture - (agriculture, animal-husbandry and aquaculture) that provide a wide range of goods and ecosystem services. This system contributes to soil improvement, watershed protection, carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation and a sustainable year-round supply of fruits, vegetables, crops, fishes, poultry, small animals, fodder, woody biomass and insects. We are involved in the primary, secondary and tertiary production and transformation of agri-aqua products of various types, investment and development of farming and breeding techniques to encourage agri-business. This is aimed at improving community resilience to food insecurity, poverty and climate change threats. We nurse and grow crops and fruit trees like mangoes, paw-paw, oranges, avocadoes, quavers and plums to enhance nutrition. We also breed and rear fishes, birds and animals such as chicken, catfish, pigs, goats and rabbits; and supply the market at a competitive price and make profit. We also formulate animal feed from locally available crops  and add more value to our products by processing them to meet our customer’s desire. Local farmers are train in animal husbandry and aqua-culture to provide alternative livelihood, generate income, eradicate poverty and malnutrition, and improve their health and well-being.

Suzy-Farms seeks to address some major issues identified in my PhD research findings. The rural communities are included as producers, consumers, distributors and employees. Each year, we train more than 50 local farmers in animal husbandry and/or aquaculture, and encourage them to nurse/plant fruit trees in their crop farms to enhance biodiversity and increase food yield per unit area of land. Local farmers work in our farms during their eight weeks training period without payment, thereby ‘learning by doing’. This is a win-win approach for both the venture and the farmers. We also assist them to sell their products if they are not able to locate a market themselves. This provide them alternative livelihoods to generate new revenue streams, enhance nutrition, eradicate poverty, invest in education and take care of their health and wellbeing. Our products are also being transported to the urban cities to feed the growing population. 

Our model generates a low maintenance, healthy, efficient, resilient and productive ecosystems that contributes to soil improvement, watershed protection, carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation and a sustainable year-round supply of fruits, crops, animals, fishes, fodder and woody-biomass. The emergence of alternative livelihood enhances farmers’ adaptive capacity to climate change threats, reduce vulnerability, restores ecosystems and biodiversity. Communities become self-reliant and resilient to threats. We are taking local actions in solving global issues like climate change, food insecurity, unemployment, poverty alleviation, hunger, pollution, biodiversity and species preservation. All these are geared towards meeting up with the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goals.

We started in Buea on 0.1ha of land with animal husbandry, aquaculture and fruit trees nursery in 2018. This was our first training site for local farmers. “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” After the training, we give them piglets, chicks or fingerlings to go and rear them as well as 10 fruit trees seedlings to plant in their crop farms. The demand for our products was higher than we could supply. We latter bought 10ha of degraded mangrove in Ndian with the profit made. Our aim was to make the land productive and share our experience with other community members. We have rehabilitated the 10ha of marshy land in Ndian with coconuts, cocoa, food crops and catfishes.  We are presently starting to rehabilitate 200ha of degraded land in Manyemen through permaculture.  

Suzy-farms adopts a flourishing natural ecosystem model which includes people, animals, birds, insects, fishes, trees, crops, vegetables, fruits, nuts, tubers, medicinal herbs, land and water resources through mutually beneficial synergies - no waste and close loop systems. We incorporate social aspects; culture of the people and indigenous knowledge; to re-construct a modern multi-storey integrated edible forest. The farm is managed as an integrated whole of a mixed diversified canopies of trees and crops underneath. Here we work alongside with nature, observing and planting according to the weather conditions; and valuing plants and animals in all their inter-related functions rather than treating any element as a single product system. We try to get a better understanding of the landscape, functions and species assemblies to enable us identify where each element should be place so they can provide maximum mutual benefit to each other and the environment. Our focus is not on an individual element, but rather the relationship among them - where the whole system becomes better than its individual elements. A sustainable system that minimizes waste, pollution, human labour, energy input and maximize benefits through synergies. This generates a low maintenance, healthy, efficient, resilient and productive ecosystems that contributes to soil improvement, watershed protection, carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation and a sustainable year-round supply of fruits, food, fodder and woody biomass. Communities become self-reliant and resilient to threats. We are taking local actions in solving global issues like climate change, food insecurity, unemployment, poverty, hunger, pollution, biodiversity, ecosystems and species preservation.

Our projects currently involves 421 local community members directly. We hope to involved more than 550 local farmers by the end of this year. For the next 5 years we seek to replicate this practice in all local communities within Cameroon serving about 1500 more low-income farmers and the general public at large.

Zero hunger - We observe the level of malnutrition especially amongst children within the community

No poverty - We employ low income groups and especially women to provide new income streams for their household. Will check if they can provide for basic needs like house, food, clothes, shoes, furniture, beauty products etc.

Good health & well-being - We check data from the community clinic to understand the health trends within the neighborhood.

Quality education - We have observe a rise in school registration around the project side, especially among girls. Women are most likely to register their girl children in school than fathers. So providing new revenue streams for woman give girls the possibility to be educated along side with boys.

Reduce inequality - We have observe that women are involved in decision making when they have the possibility to earn salaries. 

5 full time staffs 

3 part-time staffs

12 field workers 

10 temporal contract workers

Our employees are made-up of specialists in agriculture, animal-husbandry, fishery,  financial manager, sales agents, and hand-on trained employees to ensure effective and efficient management of our farms.

Dr. Nvenakeng Suzanne Awung is a socio-environmentalist and the founder/CEO of Suzy-Farms. She strongly recommended and established this inclusive agri-aqua business ventures to address the challenges faced by local farmers as identified in her PhD research (hunger, poverty, food security, alternative livelihoods and adaptability to climate change). She is passionate about forest dwellers and enjoy working with them in building resilient communities.

Mr Mbombuo Marcauley is a graduate from the National Training Centre of Veterinary, Livestock and Fisheries in Foumban, Cameroon. After his graduation in 2003, he worked as an animal husbandry specialist at the Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development in Kumba, Cameroon. He is in charge of the health of our birds/fishes, meds, feed formulas and training.

Mrs Nguateh Belinda graduated as a certified chartered accountant from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) professional school in Buea (2016). With the high rate of unemployment (especially girls) in Cameroon, she requested for a voluntary service at Suzy-Farms.  After her three month voluntary service, she was recruited to continue with managing finances, book keeping and sales.

Mr. Atemdefac Jeraih and Mrs Jacinta Abongawo are two in-house community trainees who were retained to work at Suzy-Farms. Jeraih is our field supervisor while Jacinta is in charge of sales. They share a lot of indigenous knowledge and practices that are incorporated in our model.

Suzy-farms is an inclusive purposed-driven venture. Our core values are based on diversity, equity and inclusiveness. All qualified members of the community from diverse background, age group and gender are given equal employment opportunity without discrimination. We respect employees opinions and take feedback from the community, our customers and employees to re-strategies and focus our business towards a more sustainable path. Indigenous people are very much bonded to their soil and landscape, so much that their health and mental wellbeing depend on maintaining these ties with their local home site. Preserving indigenous knowledge and plant species create an environment for enhancing community welfare and inclusiveness – the Ubuntu mindset. Community members are allow to walk through the roads within the farm and bond with nature. We offer free training to all interested potential employees or local entrepreneurs. After the training some are retain as employees and distributors, some become local entrepreneurs and the rest implement what they have learned in their own crop farms. 

We are applying to solver because we have a solution to addressing the issues of food insecurity, poverty, hunger, unemployment, gender equality, livelihoods, carbon dioxide sequestration, adaptation to climate change threat and ecosystem restoration. We wish to access mentorship and advice from experts, receive monitoring and evaluation support, share knowledge and best practices with peers, and gain access to funding in grants and investment.