DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2017.v05i07.022

Pages: 770-778

The paper examines the sway of Agro-pastoral shows in Cameroon during the period of planning for development. Planned Liberalism was a post-independence economic development policy aimed at integrating the economies of East and West Cameroons. Initially, two medium term plans were put in place covering the periods 1960-1965 and 1966-1971, with much priority on industrial rather than agricultural development, considered a key prerequisite of any meaningful economic take off point. Realizing that industrial development was costly and slow in reducing poverty and stimulating socio-economic change, greater attention was shifted towards agricultural development in the 1970s, more precisely during the periods of the 3rd (1971-1976) and 4th (1976-1981) Five Years Development Plans. In the wisdom of the time, agriculture was reconsidered as the primary and most important stage to real development in the country. Agro-pastoral shows were conceived and instituted, to stimulate, incite, inform and act as forums where farmers could learn and emulate from one another thereby enhancing agricultural development. The paper is based on primary and secondary data. It examines how agro-pastoral shows emerged and evolved in Cameroon. It starts with a contextual setting and examines why and how agro-pastoral shows emerged and evolved in West Cameroons and later on in the Unitary State. It ends with some agro-pastoral incentives. The paper contends that agro-pastoral shows enhanced Cameroon’s policy of planning for development, but clogged due to the lack of proper functioning mechanisms and advent of economic crisis in the mid-1980s.