Chapter 16. Enhancing cassava marketing and processing in Cameroon 521
4.1 The main constraints and bottlenecks in the cassava value chain
A. Constraints impeding emergence of modern production systems and better market access
a. Low levels of fertilizer use and soil degradation patterns: Cassava is known to be a soil-exhausting crop.
Given high input prices and difficult market access to fertilizers, the main strategy of cassava farmers lies
in crop rotation and fallowing. Fallow periods are not long enough though, due to demographic pressure
on land and pressures to produce food. Better input market access through outgrower schemes or other
type of contractual relationships with the downstream stakeholders could enhance production.
b. Insufficient quantities and quality of cassava seeds and material: the sector needs around 50 million
cuttings, which are far from being covered.
c. The lack of knowledge and practice of conservation techniques (and high costs): the most commonly
used practice is tubers’ conservations in fields, still planted in the soils, sometimes several months
after full maturation. PNDRT and research institutes introduced new varieties that must however be
harvested right after maturation and cannot be preserved more than 2 to 3 months in fields. These
varieties must be necessarily processed so as to increase their length of conservation. After harvest,
the quality declines very rapidly between 3-4 days, which necessitates marketing the by-products,
and relying on processing. One priority should thus be to provide smallholders with training in basic
local processing and marketing techniques.
d. Organizational and structural constraints and problems: the cassava value chain is still characterized by
current informal business practices and exhibits several coordination failures (horizontal and vertical),
which entail a lack of spillover and consultation between stakeholders, reducing the scope for fruitful
synergies. Furthermore, production markets are rather tight, with inconsistent flows of production, badly
integrated, and with high transaction costs. Indeed, local varieties which are cultivated in production areas
are in general meant to cover self-consumption needs for rural households, and only remaining surpluses
serve markets. Weak organization of most stakeholders and market players, in addition to a lack of
grouped sales’ practices in villages, constitute a major constraint to cassava product marketing and induce
high transaction costs. It is also noteworthy that production areas are mostly landlocked and end markets
are located far away from those production areas. Weak access to market information (at the national
and international levels) generates information asymmetries which are detrimental to most stakeholders,
traders and some wholesalers. Producers and processors in turn face disincentives and more uncertainties
for decision making, which is aggravated by an overall lack of information on the whole value chain (non-
market information included).
B. Financial constraints
a. High costs of equipment/infrastructure for processing, storage, and transport: the high price of
material inputs for processing and storage equipments, as well as their operational and maintenance
costs, result in unaffordability for most rural producers while freight costs are a strong limitation
to scale up the potential income benefits that could be derived by targeting exports on the sub-
regional level (Central Africa) and to Europe.
b. Restricted credit access: Several actions have been conducted by several donors (IFAD) and the
government to ease credit access for cassava producers, with mixed results. Such actions included
projects such as (i) PPMF, (ii) PADMIR, PNDRT, and so on. It has to be acknowledged that the modalities
to access credit have remained rather stringent and daunting (interest rates, repayment lengths) for
most cassava producers, while not being appropriate with regard to the growing season’s calendar.
Intra-value chain arrangements between stakeholders would be more appropriate.