Import Substitution and Agri-Food Systems in Cameroon

To address persistent trade deficits across a variety of important value chains, such as rice, maize, and oil palm, amongst others, Cameroon has put in place an ambitious import substitution policy, accompanied by the ‘Integrated Agro-Pastoral and Fisheries Import Substitution Plan’ for the 2024 – 2026 period. 

This policy aims to improve self-sufficiency and address food security concerns. It is moreover in line with the Convergence Initiative in Cameroon, which heads to simultaneously address climate change and promote the sustainable transformation of food systems. 

Measures include, but are not limited to, the expansion of cultivation areas, the use of improved seeds and inputs, and the development of new infrastructures (e.g., roads, storage facilities). These measures foresee a variety of benefits, but are also linked to economic, environmental, and social sustainability challenges. To provide an example, land expansion for agri-business activities may displace local populations and farmers and contribute to deforestation.

Overview and assessment

SASi-SPi has provided an overview of the logic and objectives of the import substitution policy in the Cameroon context with a description on how it may affect the country’s agri-food system. The SASi-SPi team has also assessed the related sustainability concerns and provided an analysis of the trade-offs associated with the different measures proposed in the recent import substitution plan. 

Substituting imports with local production in a country like Cameroon yields a high cost for the consumer in the initial years. This is because locally produced goods, like local rice, are likely more expensive compared to imported goods, like Asian rice. Therefore, local goods need to be protected from external competition with trade barriers like tariffs and import quotas. There are also the public costs of investments related to the production and processing of a good, which are needed to develop the local infant industries into mature operations that can compete at the international level. 

The development of local production could also be incentivized through production subsidies, instead of trade barriers, shifting the cost from the consumer to the taxpayer, but the amount of subsidy to compete with Asian rice would probably be a high burden for the Cameroonian taxpayers. 

Proposed conditions

Despite uncertainties regarding the impacts of import-substitution on food security, domestic prices, and the environment, SASi-SPi has proposed conditions for this strategy to maximize its expected sustainable benefits and minimize costs. 

The conditions entail the following: 

1. invest in rural roads and electricity to enhance the connection between production and consumption. 
2. invest in the budget expenditure efficiency and price stabilization/incentive. 
3. incentivize sustainable practices like agroecological production, circular rice cultivation (with rice-fish integration in irrigated rice in the West) and circular combination of soya and livestock, and water conservation practices in the North (the rainfed rice). 

It is important to ensure the high productivity of these practices so that import substitutions don’t generate more deforestation, meaning access to fertilizer, seeds, and other inputs.

For more information contact team leader Tristan le Cotty at Cirad, tristan.le_cotty@cirad.fr

The following events will take place during the spring of 2026.

World trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé, Cameroon

Cameroon-EU Business Week under the Global Gateway framework