2006 Archives
Ambassador Marquardt visits some projects in the Far North of Cameroon and plants trees to commemorate the Earth Day
Visit to Winrock Irrigation Pump Demonstration Site, Maroua
On April 22, 2006, Ambassador R. Niels Marquardt visited an irrigation pump demonstration site in Maroua, sponsored by Winrock Irrigation Project. In the parched Far North Province, there may be as little as twenty days of rain per year. The development of a sustainable pump by a manufacturer who uses local know-how and materials is an agricultural solution that is only a realistic micro-credit loan away. Winrock has sponsored a trainer from Senegal who is training workers in Cameroon to dig the wells and install the irrigation pumps.
Ambassador Marquardt was photographed by government and independent press as he tried out the local technology. Making the existence of the irrigation pump known to a wider public is important, as only four pumps have sold thus far. At the demonstration site, the cameras caught row upon row of healthy cabbage and broccoli irrigated exclusively by the Winrock Irrigation Project pumps.