What if some of the plastic bottles, discarded containers, tyres and household organic waste piling up around Bamenda could become part of the solution to two problems at once: waste management and food production?
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That is the possibility emerging from practical training now being delivered to women across Bamenda I, II and III under UN Women’s soilless agriculture for the socio economic empowerment of women and girls affected by crisis in the North West Region of Cameroon project.
The project targets 100 women and girls organised through cooperatives and organisations of persons with disabilities.
Rather than treating waste simply as something to be thrown away, participants are being shown how some of it can be transformed into agricultural resources.
Used plastic bottles and containers are being converted into planting pots. Organic household waste is being processed into compost manure. Used tyres can serve as growing containers, while simple drip irrigation systems made from recycled materials can help reduce water wastage.
The training is being carried out with technical guidance from officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development.
For environmental officials involved in the practical sessions, the attraction is precisely this connection between agriculture and waste management.
Dr Agbor Ebai Maurice Tambe, an environmentalist and waste management expert with the Regional Delegation of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development for the North West, said participants were being trained to sort household waste into biodegradable and non biodegradable materials before converting the biodegradable portion into compost.
“We demonstrated how we can sort waste, household waste, so we can separate them between biodegradable and non biodegradable waste,” he explained.
The participants were also taught how to build compost heaps and determine when the compost is mature enough for use.
But the training goes beyond composting.
“We also demonstrated how they can reuse these bottles and convert them into portable pots,” Dr Agbor said. The containers can then be used for vertical gardening and the production of vegetables around the home.
The approach is particularly relevant in Bamenda, where urban expansion is steadily reducing the space available for conventional farming.
Munomi Hosward Ngufor, Sub Delegate of Agriculture for Bamenda I, said the training is designed to help residents produce food despite limited access to farmland.
“We help them to know how to cultivate their own crops within their environments in an environment where we do not have land to maximise the little space we have,” he said.
“Bamenda I is fast growing. It is becoming much more of an urban area, and the population is increasing,” he said adding “We need to prepare ourselves because we need equally food to feed the population.”
The immediate project target is 100 women. But its potential environmental impact could be considerably larger if the skills learnt are adopted at household and community level.
The following figures are illustrative estimates, not measured project results.
If each of the 100 women reuses just 10 plastic bottles or containers every month for gardening, that would represent about 1,000 plastic items given a productive second life each month, or approximately 12,000 items in a year.
If each woman establishes only 10 container growing units, the project could potentially result in 1,000 small urban gardens across the three Bamenda subdivisions.
And if each participant converts only 10 kilogrammes of biodegradable household waste into compost every month, the collective volume would reach about 1,000 kilogrammes, or one tonne, of organic waste processed every month.
Over a year, that would amount to approximately 12 tonnes.
The numbers are deliberately conservative. They do not suggest what the women will necessarily achieve. They illustrate what could happen if relatively small household practices are repeated consistently by the 100 beneficiaries.
The bigger opportunity is replication.
If each trained woman shares the knowledge with just five other people, the skills could potentially reach another 500 people, in addition to the original beneficiaries.
That is where the environmental significance of the project could extend beyond the training venues.
Mei Immaculate, an Environment Delegate in Bamenda II who participated as a trainer, said the field sessions provided an opportunity to turn knowledge into practical action.
“Today we carried our training on the compost heap, how to prepare it and come out with a compost manure,” she said.
“We don't only have household waste like food stuff. We also have plastic containers like bottles, gallons, papers. So we had to transform them today to use them and come out with something that can help the community,” she explained.
The training also covered drip irrigation, allowing participants to manage water more efficiently, particularly during the dry season.
For Immaculate, one of the most encouraging aspects was the enthusiasm of participants.
She rated participation in one of the sessions at about 85 per cent, noting that women arrived with materials they had been asked to collect.
“They came prepared with their material. They brought their household waste, brought their plastic waste, and then brought everything that they were told in the workshop,” she said.
That response, she added, demonstrated that the women were not simply attending a workshop. They were beginning to put the knowledge into practice.
For Tata Dilys of the Know Your Neighbour Women group in Ntenefor Zone 4, Bamenda III, the attraction is straightforward: she can now grow food without needing a large piece of land.
“I don't have much space,” she said. “But what I've learnt here is how to do this potting for agriculture, where we put soil in these containers.”
Her calculation is simple. Even a small space can accommodate numerous containers.
“I have seen how you can use maybe just a five metre gap to have 100 of these pots where you can put your market gardening spices that can help you for your everyday kitchen,” she said.
For women living in rented accommodation or crowded urban neighbourhoods, that could make the difference between simply buying vegetables and producing at least some of them at home.
The same principle applies to organic waste.
Participants were shown how food leftovers and other biodegradable household materials can be layered and processed to produce compost manure instead of being discarded.
For Ndifon Sophina of the CIG Mix Farming Group in Menka Bamendakwe, Bamenda I the lesson changed the way she views waste.
“They teach us how we get for use our waste containers from around our compound,” she said.
The training, she explained, demonstrated that materials previously regarded as useless could become agricultural inputs.
Her group also learnt about drip irrigation and ways of using banana materials and discarded containers for planting.
The significance for her goes beyond environmental cleanliness.
She believes producing vegetables at home could reduce household expenditure and provide a small source of income.
The project also includes women with disabilities.
Nogning Armelle, founder of the Community Creative Centre for Women and Girls with Disabilities, said the training has provided participants with practical knowledge for managing household waste while producing food.
“We have been able to learn how to manage waste, household waste, in order to produce and come out with compost manure,” she said.
For her, the health dimension is equally important.
“We want to say something that is going to increase our livelihood and also help us to have good health, healthy living by eating something that is being produced by us at home level, even without a land,” she said.
The excitement generated by the practical sessions is encouraging, but the environmental impact of the project will ultimately depend on what happens after the trainers leave.
A workshop can demonstrate how to turn a bottle into a planting container. It cannot by itself guarantee that thousands of bottles will actually be reused.
Likewise, teaching composting does not automatically mean that tonnes of household waste will be diverted from disposal sites.
The real test will be whether the women continue the practices, whether their groups establish functioning gardens, whether households maintain compost heaps and whether participants teach others what they have learnt.
That is also why follow up will matter.
UN Women already identifies women's economic empowerment, capacity building and healthier environmental practices as part of its Cameroon programme priorities. Its country results also show the value of relay training, where trained participants and local trainers help spread agricultural knowledge beyond the original training group.
For Bamenda, that model offers an interesting possibility.
One hundred women may be the starting point. But if each woman turns a few discarded containers into planting pots, converts kitchen waste into compost and shares the knowledge with neighbours, the initiative could gradually create a network of household level waste managers and urban farmers.
The ambition, therefore, is bigger than growing vegetables without land.
It is about changing what Bamenda residents see when they look at waste.
A plastic bottle can become a planting pot.
Organic waste can become manure.
A discarded tyre can become a garden bed.
And a small piece of urban space can become a source of food.
If the 100 women trained under the project sustain and spread those practices, Bamenda could gain something that extends well beyond the original beneficiaries in the project. Less waste, more productive household spaces and more women with the skills to grow food where conventional farming is increasingly difficult.
By Bakah Derick for Hilltopvoices Web
Tel; +237694 71 85 77
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