We are a rural community. Most people leave on less than 500FCFA per day. Agriculture is the main activity practiced in our community. Our soils are barren with repeat soil farming with years. These soils are exhausted. We adopted chemical fertilizers to mitigate this situation. The consequences are griever on us. Chemical fertilizers are very expensive for our rural community. We are plunged into the vicious poverty circle. Our soils are exposed due to deforestation. The impact on our health is also well known. The white men?s diseases like we call it here are affecting us (diabetes, high blood pressure). Many have been diagnosed having it. There have been urgent needs to curb and reverse this situation. The solution was agroforestry.

Agroforestry is a practice where by crops, animals and trees are b planted together in the same piece of land. CAMGEW encourages agroforestry in the Oku Community and other neighboring communities especially because the land is hilly and there too much erosion and soil degradation. The grazing activity practiced in this area is an advantage to this activity. Agroforestry trees used by CAMGEW include prunus africana, leucena, and acacia. These trees are bee loving. Other trees encouraged by CAMGEW include fruit trees like mango, orange, pears and cola nuts. These trees have proven to have no effect on crops planted.

The adoption of agroforestry techniques in Oku is as a means to mitigate climate change at the global level. These trees increase the carbon sink capacity in Oku they also protect the environment as they act as wind breaks, protecting the soil from wind and water erosion. These trees also protect crops and assure good yields for community members. The trees provide fodder for animals and most importantly the litter from these trees improves on soil fertility as a regular source of compost manure is assured. The regular source of manure reduces the burden of chemical fertilizers. Yields are improved for practically no penny. Some of the compost is used to practice gardening around houses. These trees provide nectar and pollen round the year for bee farmers. Bees are the best pollinators. This improves on crop yields.

This is done through the training of farming groups and individual farmers. The community members are embracing forest gardening as an agroforestry technique. These are field trainings and radio programs on the importance of agroforestry. During these trainings, agroforestry seeds are distributed to farmers and they are taught on how to set a tree nursery and how to cater for them, how to plant them and careter for thereafter.