Villagers in the Far North Region of Cameroon suffer from chronic malnutrition due to recurrent food shortages. This problem is exacerbated by grain merchants who buy up and hoard the produce from farmers and resell it at an exorbitant price to villagers who are already facing dire poverty.

With RELUFA’s establishment of Community-run Grain Bank programs, villagers can keep their produce local by stocking it in communal granaries. The program allows families to receive training on how to start and manage a new grain bank. Community members can take grain from the stock as an in-kind loan that they reimburse later in grains from their personal harvest efforts. This way, poor families don’t go hungry, and instead use their resources (cattle, goats, chickens) to send their children to school. The replenished stock serves as the village’s food supply during the lean season. Currently, 41 granaries serve 25,000 people, but more are needed.

Grain merchants selling stock at exorbitant prices are the direct cause of chronic malnutrition related to food shortages
in Cameroon.