Analysis of Agriculture Tourism in Cameroon - Case Study Example

Write a Project on Agriculture Tourism in Cameroon Tourism is an act of travelling to different places in the world apart from their usual environment for the purpose of recreation, commercial reasons and many other purposes; but generally the main reason of visiting and staying at different locations is recreation and leisure. People usually get bored and tired of their regular routine life, so in order to refresh themselves and have a break from the routine life they visit to different places usually in vacations. Tourism has become a growing leisure activity and many of the people prefer to spend their free time visiting different places instead of spending the time in other activities. Tourism as a business has also quite flourished in the past years making the countries to draw their attention towards the development of the tourism industry and make improvements. Tourism is becoming an increasingly popular activity as it is truly refreshing in all senses and let people live a wonderful time of their life. Areas which are mostly attracted by tourists usually include natural sites and historical sites. Natural beauty cannot be paralleled to any man made structure or any other thing and therefore the greatest attraction lies in natural geographical sites. Tourism is a popular industry in many of the countries and in some countries tourism is so popular that major part of their economy is dependent on the money and investments from tourism (Sznajder, Michał, Przezbórska, and Scrimgeour, 45-89). Cameroon is a country in the west of Africa and is a small country with respect to the area it occupies and the population count in the country. It is not a very well developed country and before the 1970’s the country was doomed in the darkness. The politicians were corrupt and there was no sign or hint of development in any of the sector. Cameroon is a country with a large diversity in culture, heritage, climate, geography and people. A number of different landscapes, beautiful natural sites, variety of terrains are situated in the country. Besides the deserts, forests, mountains and various landscapes it is also a home to many of the infamous and symbolic animals of Africa like the elephants, gorillas, rhinoceroses, giraffes, hippopotamus, cheetahs, etc. It is an ideal place where tourism can flourish greatly and the country has been blessed with a number of tourist attraction sites that the people would love to visit and spend their leisure time. But due to the bad conditions of the country, law and order situations, lack of infrastructure and facilities for the tourist; the tourists usually avoid this country for tourism. But this was the scenario till the 1970’s; in 1974 when the new president was elected things began to change and many developments were observed (Paris: J.A.-Conseil, 60-67). A committee for the development of tourism and looking over the matters related to the sector of tourism; a number of initiatives were started by the government to improve the industry of tourism. They worked to improve the basic requirements that are necessary in order to attract the tourists to the places of beauty; these include proper road availability, better transportation facilities like improved railway systems, airport facilities, and other such facilities to facilitate the visitors and tourists. Tourists always will prefer those places where the fundamental facilities have been provided. The government has taken this approach to provide the basic facilities. A lot of developments have been since the start of the new government. The number of hotels and hotel roams earlier were only 37 hotels and some hundreds of hotel rooms but within a few years this number increased quite a lot and now there are almost 10,000’s of hotel rooms. After the developments a rapid increase in the number of visiting tourists. The government has worked a lot to increase forest reserves and other natural sites of attraction (Paris: Editions J.A, 23-44). Cameroon is a small country but it has all the diversities that exist in Africa, therefore it is generally referred to mini Africa. All the different land features that can be seen in various parts of Africa can be seen in Cameroon. The country has a high land area, beaches, forests, great culture, historical sites, and many other tourist attraction sites (Yaoundé: Ministry of Information and Culture, Dept. of Information and Press, 33-39). The main source of income for income in the previous till the discovery and production of oil was agriculture. A number of cash crops and food crops have been grown in various parts of Cameroon. These crops include cotton, sugarcane, coffee, rubber, peanuts, bananas, palm oil, kernels, corn, cassava, millet, plantains, tea, tobacco, pineapple, rice, dry beans, potatoes, yams, etc. Besides the growth of crops forestry and fisheries are also an important industry in Cameroon. Animal farming is also a common practice in many parts of the country. Cameroon is blessed with a very fertile land and it rains very often and the country can use this blessing to attract more and more tourists (Yaounde?: Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Studies and Projects, Division of Agricultural Statistics, 43-57). Many countries have adopted the practice to use agriculture to influence and attract the tourists. This is usually referred to as agritourism. This involves all those activities and practices which are related to the term agriculture and the use of these practices to attract tourist attentions. Agritourism is a very vast term and has several different concepts in different parts of the world. In some parts agritourism is referred to the act of visiting and staying in farms. It also includes the practice of picking up fruits, harvesting crops, helping with the cattles, caring the crops, and many other such activities. It also involves the buying and selling of farm products. Cameroon can benefit from all these practices and promote the industry of agritourism. Agritourism is a part of the tourism industry and it is one of the growing industries of tourism. Many countries are working on this industry and trying to make improvements and make developments in this industry. This industry has two benefits and both the benefits are worth investing in them. First and foremost the tourism industry is benefitted a lot. People love the peace and serenity of farms and farm houses; the peace, calm and beauty that lie in the greenery of the farms are a great attraction for the tourists. The basic jobs that are involved in a farm are also attractive for the tourists. Feeding the animals, watering the crops, looking after the crops and animals, picking up the ripe crops and fruits, cleaning the barns and farms, doing other activities that are a regular job in the farm also attract the tourists and people love to do these sort of activities in their leisure time. The people that are the tourist and the visitors are exhausted from their routine lives and love to get involved in activities that are normally a part of their normal busy lives. Therefore it is easy to attract these people to such activities and promote this industry. This industry of agritourism can be flourished greatly if certain care and concentration is given to this industry (Yaounde?: Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Studies and Projects, Division of Agricultural Statistics, 75-89). Agritourism is of great importance for the country as it not only benefits the tourism industry but also benefits the agriculture industry. The agriculture industry is benefitted in the way that when the tourists and visitors come and help the local farmers on their farms and animals, the process of production of crops and fruits increase and the entire processes on the farms speed up thus increasing the overall productions. The increase in production of crops and other farm products help to increase the overall economy of the country. Working at the farms also includes the making of different handmade products. In farms and ranches the females are usually involved in small scale businesses. Small scale businesses usually include making of handmade arts and craft things, mats, pots, pouches, and other beautiful creations which are definitely made to attract the tourists. By increasing the industry of agritourism also helps to increase and develop these businesses. Increment in these small scale businesses help to improve the financial and economic conditions of the people living in the farms. When the financial conditions of the farmers improve, it will make them financially sound and capable of spending money in farming activities and to make improvements and buy new and advanced equipments, tools, seeds and fertilizers. With the use of these new and advanced products and technology farming can be greatly improved and developed. The ultimate products of the farming are also improved a lot by the use of these new technologies and farming products. Yields can be greatly improved if the basic products that are used for the production of these crops are improved and this improvement can only be made if the farmers are financially sound and have money to invest in these things. The tourists who visit and stay at farms also buy those hand made products and thus benefit the farmers for the production of crops (Paris: J.A.-Conseil, 89-97). Cameroon takes full advantage of this industry and has invested a lot in the development and advancement of this industry. Cameroon has a very fertile land and therefore farming can be practiced very easily without much trouble. Rain also is an important factor for efficient and convenient farming and in many parts of the country this is also very often that is in Cameroon in majority of the land areas it rains almost throughout the year thus making the land more fertile and useful for agriculture. Different parts of Cameroon have different climatic conditions and thus a large variety of crops can be grown and harvested without much difficulty. The government of Cameroon has invested a lot in improving the conditions of farms and has built beautiful and comfortable ranches, huts and farmhouses on the farms to attract the tourists and make them feel homely (Paris: Editions J.A, 57-59). The government has built a number of large farms with farmhouses to provide cozy accommodations to the tourists so that they can feel themselves at home and then this will definitely improve the overall impression of the tourism industry improves and more and more tourists are attracted to the place and thus the tourism industry and ultimately the overall economy of the country is improved much. Large farms give a lot of space for a variety of crops to be planted and harvested. Besides planting crops, cattle including sheep, cows, goats, chickens can also be kept on the farms and dairy and poultry business can also be run as a side business and large amounts of profits can be earned and this profit can be used for improving the farming conditions (Yaoundé: Ministry of Information and Culture, Dept. of Information and Press, 79-91). Improving the farming products, yields and harvest improve and benefit the agriculture industry. It has been observed that since the development of the agritourism industry there has been a massive improvement and development in the agriculture industry and a lot of profit has been obtained through this industry. Cameroon is basically an agricultural country and a major part of the income of the country depends on the agricultural export that takes place. If the capital earned through the agricultural sector improves it will definitely have a direct impact on the country’s economy. And by means of agritourism in Cameroon the agricultural sector has greatly improved. Cameroon was an extremely under developed country and required a lot of improvements and growth to improve their political, financial and economic conditions and to gain stability. For all this improvement the main requirement was money. Slowly and gradually with the improvement of the industries particularly the agriculture industry the economic conditions greatly improved and gradually the country gained stability. The tourism industry also contributed a lot in the improvement of the economic conditions of the country and the stability of the country. And with the development of the agritourism industry both the tourism industry and the agriculture industry greatly benefitted and improved and automatically the overall economically got benefitted. And when the economy improved the country on the whole developed and improved the infrastructure facilities, roads, railway stations, ports, and other transport facilities. A country becomes more attractive for the people when the country will be stable enough to satisfy the needs of the tourists. Cameroon after a long struggle and effort has now become stable enough to attract tourist’s attention. And with the years the numbers of tourists that have been coming to Cameroon has greatly increased (Paris: Editions J.A, 79-95). Cameroon must continue to make improvements and developments in the country so as to attract more and more tourists so that their economy can further improve and the conditions of their country can get more and more stable. As the country get more and more stable the overall impression of the country improves and thus ultimately it results in an overall better image of the country. An improved image of the country attracts more tourists towards the country. Cameroon is still on the way to make further improvements in its economy to further stabilize the conditions of the state. The government of Cameroon has worked quite a lot to improve the tourism industry and particularly the agritourism industry which has provided the country with a number of benefits so the government has preferred to invest and make further improvements in the agritourism industry so that not only a particular sector gets benefitted but the entire economy gets improved and benefitted. Therefore the entire focus of the government has been the agritourism industry of Cameroon from quite years and many improvements can be seen and the outcomes of these efforts can also be clearly seen from the improvements in the economy and tourism industry (Paris: J.A.-Conseil, 112-134). Works Cited Sznajder, Michał, Lucyna Przezbórska, and Frank Scrimgeour. Agritourism. Wallingford, UK: CABI, 2009. Print. Tourism in Cameroon. Paris: J.A.-Conseil, 1979. Print. Nga-Ndongo, Valentin. Tourism in Cameroon. Paris: Editions J.A, 1977. Print. Cameroon Agriculture in Figures. Yaounde?: Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Studies and Projects, Division of Agricultural Statistics, 1986. Print. Agriculture in Cameroon. Yaoundé: Ministry of Information and Culture, Dept. of Information and Press, 1975. Print. Read More