World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Village Granaries in Cameroon

The three key holders at a WFP-supported village granary in Cameroon’s Far North unlock a small warehouse for sales during the lean season, when food runs short.

Village Granaries in Cameroon 2

 

1. Felicite Sengram is secretary of the Zidim village granary near Maroua on the edge of the drought-hit Sahel region. Villagers can “withdraw” food during the July-October lean season and “pay it back” when their own harvest comes in.  

 

Village Granaries in Cameroon 3

The idea builds on the tradition of family granaries like this one, where Dawai Saratou Ayouba stores peanuts, millet and beans. With village granaries the whole community can beat the hunger season by saving during the harvest and getting a “loan” in hard times.

 

Village Granaries in Cameroon 4 WFP helps women like Habi Musa set up village granaries with 10 metric tons of grain which forms the basis of a cereal bank. Women make up 90 percent of the management committees of the 410 WFP granaries in Cameroon.

Village Granaries in Cameroon 5

With financial support from the European Community, WFP has trained women on the management committees in food storage, book-keeping etc. More than 300,000 people have benefitted from the granaries.

Village Granaries in Cameroon 6

Collateral in the shape of a goat: When Jean Haman Kadangaba ran out of money and had no food in the house, he turned to the village granary. He had no grain to offer so the steering committee accepted one of his animals as a deposit.

Village Granaries in Cameroon 7 Didim Hapsatou, 57, Treasurer of the GIC Agropastoral, Mbarang village granary, also remembers going hungry. She used the granary to deposit surplus grain and take out small cash loans to buy clothes and schoolbooks for her grandchildren

Village Granaries in Cameroon 8 Members meet to discuss how they can use profits from the granary to finance projects for the village.  In Mbarang, they have bought a milling machine and helped set up a school.

Village Granaries in Cameroon 9 Jean Haman Kadangaba, 68, a retired evangelist, pictured with his wife, Damaris, 62, remembers good times and bad times. In 1998, people died from hunger in Zidim during a terrible drought.

Village Granaries in Cameroon 10

Hadja Kingui Balkissa of FOREDEN NGO, is a WFP cooperating partner who helps give training and guidance on the Village Granaries project in Adamaoua region.

Village Granaries in Cameroon 11

Yvette Miste, brewer, farmer and mother of six, used the GIC Watroumsa village granary to save up grain to brew more local beer and with the profit paid for school supplies for her daughter.

Village Granaries in Cameroon--12

Yvette Miste puts finishing touches with a maize husk to a hand-made pot used to brew beer. The proceeds help keep her daughter, Amelie Damaya, 20, left, in full-time education.