During my two years of obligatory medical service in Ndop, Cameroon, I saw men, women and children toiling and
moiling under the hot blazing sun and cold chilly nights beneath the
ngoketunjia hills yielding a harvest which I may term "infra"
optimal. I used to wonder and ponder if the negative effects of rice
cultivation in the Ndop plain didn’t surpass the benefits (“exaggerated!”).
I saw children dying from anaemia secondary to malaria - the
stagnant waters (of Bambalang) being the niche for the transmitting vector the
anopheles.This gave Ndop the reputation of being one of the regions of the
country with the highest prevalence of malaria!
I received teens with hernias , young ladies with backaches
from recurrent muscular stress and strain while working in the rice farms.
Ironically, most of these farmers never had enough funds to
pay their medical bills nor educate their children because of the inefficient
methods used in rice cultivation. My impressions were much effort was put in
without a commensurate output! Rice cultivation was mostly for subsistence-
much man power used, much time invested, much natural resources (land etc) used
for meager output! But whose fault?
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