In order to facilitate exchanges with other boroughs and other regions, the Construction of

transport infrastructure is essential. This improvement May also encourage the exploitation of
cocoa-associated trees in a more (Such as fruit trees, which are very perishable), thus reducing
the storage time before sale

For good cassava yield, the introduction of IRAD improved varieties,

Respect of seeding densities and monitoring, can be of great importance in
Increased yield

In general, associated trees have a shading role (effective Against the pockets of mirides),
other uses (nutrition, health, wood ... etc). But the income of These associated trees are poorly
estimated because the emphasis is mainly on cocoa (Main plant). Indeed, these associated
trees are a potential source of income that Should be taken into account and properly assessed,
in order to enhance the purchasing power of households

Support for women to access machines to help transform their production to higher value
products to improve their incomes

 Set up cooperatives to be able to meet their own needs and shortfalls such as fertilizers
through group work, help and cooperation from other better experienced producers with
experience . This will also help to solve the problem of manpower which is rare
The main objective of this study was to determine the contribution of food crops in cocoa
growing household economy of the localities of Ngomedzap and Bokito, more precisely its
share of household income. To achieve this main objective, 3 specific objectives where deduce
from; firsly to identity the different cropping system in cocoa growing household, secondly to
calculate the economic returns of these cropping systems and thirdly to determine the factors
influencing food crops income in the household. To achieve these objectives, primarily data
was collected from 120 households and analysed using Microsoft excel and SPSS.This analysis
involced the used of statistical tools such as frequency tables, central tendencies and
percentages and an OLS regression techniques were used as inferential statistics tools to run
our regressions.

In our study is was found that in these localities women are most often in charge of food crops
while men are in charge of cocoa. As such findings show that the average age of men was
approximately 52 years while that of women was 48 years. It was found that 57.7% men had
attended secondary meanwhile 57,7%of women had attended primary school.The results
equally indicated that 73.1% had a household size comprised between 5 to 8 members. More
so , the results equally show that 46,25% of men had off farm activities whereas only 11,5% of
women engaged in off farm activities. Another important aspect was the presence of extension
officers. 61,5% of men confirmed to have received an extention officer whereas 100% of
women involved in food crop production had never received an extension officer in their farms.
To identify the different cropping systems, key variables such as farm size, crops grown, crop
cycle, cropping practice sequences and maintenance of soil fertility was used to characterized
food cropping system meanwhile farm size, farm age, phytosanitary product used and cropping
practice sequences was used to characterized cocoa cropping systems. Three cropping systems
was identify in each locality and it was concluded that cropping systems vary from one locality
to another.

In determining the economic returns of the different cropping systems, gross output/ha, gross
value added/ha, intermediate cost/ha and the labour productivity of these cropping systems
where calculated. In the locality of Ngomedzap, FCS1 had a GO/ha of 1868905FCFA, FCS2
had a GO/ha of 1868905FCFA and CCS had a GO/ha of 365023FCFA. In the locaty of Bokito,
FCS1 had a GO/ha of 1131333FCFA, FCS2 had a GO/ha of 1213538FCFA and CCS had a
GO/ha of 387422FCFA. It was further obtained that food cropping systems in both localities
incurred the highest intermediate cost, contributed more to household income but had lower
labour productivity due to the fact that they are so labour intensive when compared to cocoa
cropping systems.

In determining the factors influencing the contribution of food crops income to the household,
an OLS regression was used Farm size, production purpose, labour source and household size
were found to significantly influence the contribution of food crops income to the household.

From the survey, the study concludes that agriculture is the main source of income for cocoa
growing households with both cocoa and food crops playing major roles. With food crops
cultivated on hectare, it contribute to the annual household income far better than cocoa grown
on one hectare. Therefore, with the greater contribution of food crops to household income
accent can be put on its cultivation in cocoa growing areas due to the constant decline in cocoa
prices.

Recommendations

Considering the dependency of rural households incomes on agriculture in the localities of

Ngomedzap and Bokito, the following recommendations are made

Stakeholders

The existing food cropping system is characterized among other factors by the utilization of
local low yielding varieties. Therefore it is recommended that, the government and stakeholders
should establish the seeds farms unit. In order to ensure that the improved varieties seeds are
available around the farmer's environment.

The improvement of farm to market roads should be considered so as to decrease costs to the
farmer and decrease current production losses.

Programs to support and promote alternative livelihood sources in rural communities should be
encourage by the state and policy makers

The extension service unit towards food crop production is not well operated with the exception
of those localities with specific projects or programmes such as PIDMA, Thus, it is
recommended to the state and to related agricultural development partners that the existing
extension service systems be revived by taking into consideration the potentials of food crops.

Farmers

The existing marketing channels consisting mainly of “buyam sellams” are inadequate to
absords all food crops due to unreliable transport to the city. Also, individual smallholder
farmers are not able to reach the city. To deal with this problem, it is recommended that there
is need to establish co-operative societies and farmers' organizations. But government should
encourage and support them both financially and technically

Farmers in cocoa growing households are not-optimally allocating resources for their crops
enterprises, Therefore it is recommended that, farmers should plan their resources optimally by
considering the potentials of food crops.

Farmers should plant fruit trees in their cocoa farms so as to diversify their source of income
within the cocoa farms.

There have been problems of plant pathology on some crops,

Cassava tuber of all ages, and soil fertility problems on production
Grains of shriveled egousi and empty peanut pods. To remedy this, seminars
Should be considered in order to raise awareness
Main pests of their culture, physiological damage and also to speak to them
Methods for the sustainable conservation of soil fertility
Literature review
f the cocoa farmers in Lekie, 81% are only planters and do not work in other trades. In
response to fluctuations in the international cocoa price market, growers try to rely on other
sources of income in their cocoa trees by introducing some food crops and market gardening
into cocoa (Sonwa et al., 2000) . In his study on the management of cocoa cultivation in a wet
forest zone in South Cameroon in 2003, they obtained almost the same result. This study
shows that more than 80% of the cocoa farmers in the area have no other activity outside
agriculture (Sonwa et al., 2003).
The study previously quoted by Pedelahore (2014) reveals that in the area of Obala and Talba,
it is their urban activities (real estate owners, traders, managers of transport companies, top
executives in the public or private sector) Make it possible to accumulate large amounts of
financial capital for the activities of the cocoa farm.
At the macroeconomic level
During favorable market years, stabilization levies were above CFAF 60 billion per year ($ 66
billion in 1984/85) (Losch et al., 1991). These sums levied for stabilization have greatly
contributed to the development of other sectors of national life. 10% of taxes are levied by the
state on the export of cocoa and 6.5% on imports of inputs such as pesticides and 17% of
turnover taxes (Gockowski and Dury, 1999, Losch and Al., 1991). The cocoa sector provides
money to cocoa buyers, transporters, pesticide vendors, etc.
The cocoa and coffee sectors in Cameroon account for about 3% of national GDP and 15% of
primary sector GDP. Between 1980 and 2000, exports of cocoa and coffee accounted for
nearly 28% of GDP of non-oil products and 40% of primary sector exports generated about
CFAF 110 billion / year redistributed to 900 000 producers and close to 4 000,000 people.
From 2002 to 2011, Cameroonian cocoa exports increased from 140,000 to 210,000 T, an
increase of 70,000 T in absolute terms, with a peak of 228,500 tons in 2010, with annual
growth of about 5.9%. Abena, 2006, CTSCFCC, 2014, ONCC, 2009).

contribution of cocoa income to total household income

A survey carried out in 1954 shows that 70 per cent of the cash receipts of cocoa-producing
households come from the sale of cocoa (Binet, 1956). Thirty years later, the sale of cocoa
still accounts for 50-75% of the budget in more than 90% of households in the Center
(Leplaideur, 1985). And twenty years later, the Hietet study (2005) argues that cocoa remains
an important source of income, accounting for up to 48% of total household income in the
South Central region of Cameroon.
Cocoa contributes 67% to the overall income of cocoa-producing households in rotation with
other crops in the Bokito district (Jagoret, 2013). These results are similar to those obtained in
the forest areas of Cameroon where cocoa farming accounts for 69% of farmers' incomes
(Jagoret et al., 2006). They also confirm the values obtained by Weber (1977) and Santoir
(1995) who observe that cocoa farming accounts for 60% of the income of crop-rotating
households.
A recent survey of Talba cocoa-producing households by Ngono et al. (2015) reveals that the
sale of cocoa contributes 65% to the incomes of the Talba village households including in our
study area.

Xtics des menages

Throughout the wetland zone of Central and South Cameroon, cocoa beans are perceived as
belonging to the family, and the sale of land is generally poorly received. The customary land
used for cocoa cultivation reveals the national domain. In this zone, 97% of the cocoa farmers
are indigenous and more than 50% of the cocoa beans are inherited. There are no specific
measures to monitor the implementation of these systems. In the current context of
liberalization, only attractive socio-economic considerations regulate the management of
cocoa agroforests (Sonwa et al., 2000).
According to a study done in Talba in Central Cameroon, cocoa farmers are predominantly
(93%) foreigners, 83% of whom come from the Lékié department (Pedelahore, 2014). The
same source reveals that in the Obala area, the majority of small- and medium-sized cocoa
farmers have access to land (97%) by inheritance and 17% have not purchased it. While for
the Talba area, it is the purchase that is the dominant mode of access to the land since the
allochtones represent 85% of the total number of planters of this zone. At the opening of this
pioneer front, some of the first migrants settled in remote, isolated and uninhabited areas were
able to acquire land by the right of the ax (22%). This modality then quickly and practically
disappeared. The few non-natives (9%) who had land by inheritance are only young planters.
Another study by Jagoret et al. (2006) in the Bokito district, still in Central Cameroon, shows
that the vast majority of cocoa-producing households are indigenous

Sonwa et al. (2003) shows that in Central and South Cameroon more than 85% of cocoa
farmers do not have contact with extension agents. However, in the study by Ngono et al.
(2015), surveys show that in Mbalmayo, on a sample of 105 cocoa farmers, 23.81%, 33.33%,
1.90%, and 1.90% belong respectively to an association, a cooperative and another
organization, While 39.05% does not belong to any organization or does not pronounce itself
In the Talba area of Central Cameroon, the average area of cocoa beans is 8.21 ha per farm
(Pedelahore, 2014). This confirms the scant information available on the farm structures in
this area, which represented 36.5% of the number of farms with a cocoa area of more than 5
ha (Jagoret et al., 2006) and 8 ha of land Cocoa production by farm (Elong, 2004). Whereas in
the Lékié department, the cocoa area fluctuates between 1 and 2 ha (Achancho, 2006)

In the area of Obala, the workforce remains 71% family or based on mutual aid. The situation
is reversed for the area of Talba where this percentage concerns the workforce outside the
family (temporal workforce). This non-family workforce is governed by various statutes and is
predominantly English-speaking. It originates from the deprived and overpopulated areas of the
department of the North-West (Pedelahore, 2014). Production in the cocoa beans of Mbam is
characterized by seasonal labor coming from the north-western part of the country. While in
the Moungo, the workforce in cocoa-based farms is more family-oriented (Achancho, 2006)