Intensification of Livestock Production Systems in the North West Region of Cameroon : A South-to-South Collaboration for Technology Transfer, The Tugi Silvopastoral Project

The Tugi Silvo-pastoral Project (TUSIP)
is a South-South Cooperation between the Tropical
Agriculture Research and Higher Education Centre (CATIE)
based in Costa Rica (www.catie.ac.cr) and the Akwi Memorial
Foundation (AMF) based in the North West Region of Cameroon.
The main goal of TUSIP was to assess the environmental
benefits of a set of silvo-pastoral practices and to empower
traditional livestock farmers in Tugi Village by enhancing
their capability to manage available crop-animal systems and
natural resources in a sustainable manner. TUSIP made
efforts in the rehabilitation of degraded pasturelands to
ensure adequate year-round availability of forages to
increase animal productivity in a sustainable manner,
consequently contributing to improving the livelihoods of
rural families who depend on livestock activities in Tugi.
The project put emphasis on (1) modifying the traditional
crop-livestock systems through the implementation of
silvo-pastoral options, which helped to diversify income
sources, and (2) improving soil fertility, while (3)
restoring ecosystem services that were affected by the
change in land use from forests to degraded pastures. The
project applied participatory methodologies to build the
capability of the Tugi population to replicate the
technological innovations introduced by TUSIP.