But now thousands of residents in the capital, struggling to make ends meet, are trying their hands at agriculture as a means of reducing their food bills. Barnabas Akahkuh is one of this new breed of city dwellers. In the past, urban agriculture had been discouraged by officials of the ministries of health and environment, who saw farms in towns as breeding grounds for mosquitoes, snakes and rodents. Now they admit that urban farming has instead helped to clear the bush around this equatorial city, where it takes just a few weeks of rain to turn a vacant lot into a thicket.
Urban agriculture is part of a worldwide trend.
Up to 90 percent of the vegetable supply in China's towns is produced by their inhabitants, while urban agriculture satisfies 95 percent of Israel's food requirements. While there are no figures on urban agriculture in Yaounde, government officials estimate that the number of farmers in the Cameroonian capital runs into thousands. They range from the unemployed to public servants forced to supplement their meagre salaries. Handson Ghandi, for example, is a Finance Ministry official. He also harvests at least 10 jute bags of maize, about seven bags of cassava and five of sweet potatoes from his farm each year.