I’m going to eat some yogurt today while I’m in the market.
Yogurt isn’t hard to find in Cameroon or Oku in particular. Sometimes it’ll be
homemade, sold out of a cooler in little plastic bags (my tip, buy it early in
the day) other times you find products like yogurt or soy milk in refrigerated
cases. In a city you’ll find these on just about every block, in village there
may be one or two shops that keep a refrigerator. But the yogurt I’m about to
eat isn’t imported from Nigeria or South Africa, it’s actually made less than
10 miles from the market, in modern facilities with impressive hygiene
standards, by a milk cooperative that is doing some of the most progressive
work I’ve seen in Cameroon.
I visited the Tadu Dairy Cooperative a few months ago, but
when I stopped in last week two things I hadn’t noticed before stood out: Their
shiny new Massey Ferguson tractor and the whirring of their liquid nitrogen compressor.
Yup, someone in Oku Sub-Division makes liquid
nitrogen on a regular basis. Why? To preserve semen of course. One of the
many activities of the cooperative is a breeding program to improve the milk
production of their cows. About 25 years ago they began impregnating their
local cows with semen from Holsteins (the black and white cow of cartoon fame)
and in the ensuing years increased their average milk production about 10-fold.
This helps them preserve the characteristics of the local breeds and any
adaptations they have to the local climate while improving their profitability.
Before I saw the compressor, my eye had been caught by the
tractor in their garage complete with attachments of harrows for seeding
improved pasture grasses and cutters for windrowing hay. Up to then, I’d never
seen cows in Cameroon kept in any way except extensive grazing systems, so I
geeked out at the idea of a cut-and-carry feeding system being used in my own
backyard. If I can gauge by the reaction of my American friend that was with me
that day, not everyone gets so excited by these kinds of revelations, but
taking advantage of cut-and-carry opens the door to the 20th century
for dairy farmers (and not so much in an Upton Sinclair, The Jungle sort
of way, more of a better nutrition, more efficient land use, profitable
business kind of way).
To Recap: Modern, stainless steel processing floor, tractors
for better management, and a breeding program racing to catch up with any dairy
in the world. Not bad, but to top it off, all of these ingredients lead to a
product line that is marketed across the country. Yogurt is the flagship, but
milk, butter, and cheese are also available. Yes, there are backers living
outside the country, but, unlike so many businesses in Cameroon, this one would
survive without them and each time the members of the cooperative learn and
adapt a new skill (improved pastures, breeding, etc.) those backers become less
integral. I hope we’re doing something similar in our work with Organic coffee
farmers. Check back in 25-years. 