The fund came in the wake of the bird flu scare that was reported in Cameroon notably around Doualare in Maroua and Malape in Garoua in March 2006. The scare, says AllAfrica, led to dwindling consumption of chicken and poultry products as well as the massive destruction of eggs and day-old chicks across the country.

As a result, poultry farmers incurred enormous losses. The money was provided to poultry farmers recently in Yaounde through the Cameroon Inter-Professional Poultry Association known by its French acronym as IPAVIC. The signing of two conventions of collaboration between the government and promoters of micro poultry farming projects marked the occasion.

The Deputy Secretary General in the Prime Minister's Office, Emmanuel Nganou Ndjoumessi, signed on behalf of the President of the Inter-Ministerial Adhoc Committee for the prevention and fight against bird flu while the Secretary General for IPAVIC, François Djonou, signed for the poultry farmers.

Prior to the August 12 ceremony, the Coordinator of the Inter Ministerial Committee, Dr. Jermias Inrombe, had, at a press briefing on August 11, revealed that in addition to money to re-launch the poultry sector, materials from donors are also available for the field staff of the ministries involved in the fight against bird flu.

In a statement at the occasion, the UNDP Resident Representative, Mrs. Ekoue Dede, said the material donor agencies gave to government is just part of the support compared to the numerous field activities and technical support being given to the integrated national plan for the prevention and fight against bird flu.

Meanwhile, the IPAVIC SG noted that poultry farmers suffered great losses following the outbreak of the bird flu amounting to some FCFA 3.131 billion. He said the fight against the disease did not foresee any support to such a situation.

Information from the Inter-Ministerial Committee indicates that some 15 common initiative groups from each of the ten provinces would benefit from the FCFA 163 million. The groups are expected to eventually give back some of their products to other farmers in a revolving manner.