Toward Conventional or Organic Agriculture? A Sustainability Check from Cameroon

Abstract

Aims: The environmental advantages of organic over conventional agriculture have gained increasing importance in the last decades. The organic agriculture discourse has been mainly propelled by food-sufficient countries in the West and the emerging economies in Asia. Strangely, it has not attracted similar attention in Sub-Saharan Africa where agriculture plays a significant role in the economy, is a key livelihood activity for most inhabitants and food insufficiency is rampant. The objective of this paper is to comparatively analyze sustainability aspects of conventional and organic agriculture, using the common cabbage, Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata. Study Design:  We apply the randomized complete block design. Place and Duration of Study: Centre de Formation du Noun (CEFAN), in Noun division, in the western region of Cameroon, between August and October 2016. Methodology: 1250 cabbage plants were planted on 10 equal and randomly selected plots. 5 replications were each subjected to conventional and organic practices. Plant parameters such as leaf area, plant height, survival rates, plant yields and soil pH were recorded from randomly selected plants from all plots, and used to estimate economic and ecological sustainability dimensions. Results: Data analysis revealed that all captured parameters with the exception of soil pH were higher on average in the conventional agriculture plots. Survival rates and subsequent gross margin were significantly higher for conventionally cultivated cabbages (X2=.05, P=.04 respectively). Conclusion: We therefore conclude that in agriculture-dependent economies at lower levels of development where market differentiation is highly deficient, conventional agriculture should be the preferred practice.