Rural development is a crucial issue throughout the world. Key issues include farming and forestry, land use and the management of natural resources. In addition economic diversification in rural communities is at the centre of many programs across the globe.

The purpose of this volume is to explore the involvement of NGOs in the development of a rural region of Cameroon that has attracted a large proportion of NGOs. The focal questions that are addressed in this volume are: what are the elements of rural development in the region and what are the forms of involvement, strategies, and impact of NGOs and their programmes on the lives of the rural masses? These questions provide the base for a critical assessment of the efforts of NGOs as a possible development myth, not only for Cameroon, but also for other developing societies.

The sacred forest is a concrete place with a rich symbolic meaning. For the Laimbwe ethnic group of the North West Region of Cameroon, it is the centre of the social life, around which the people organize their matrilineal system. Henry Kam Kah describes the origin, development and the changes in matriliny as a gender construction from an insider point of view. Using written material and interviews with 150 persons, he shows how the system overcame all the various challenges since the 18th century, especially the rejection of matriliny by the colonial powers and Christian missionaries. With this study, Henry Kam Kah calls into question different prejudices of a Eurocentric gender research which believes in the dominance of patriarchal structures and the decline of other gender systems under the impact of global influence and pressure. Henry Kam Kah is Senior Lecturer at the Department of History of the University of Buea (Cameroon).

Rice and rice breeding; Development of high-yielding rice varieties; Rice varieties and area; Summary of area estimates.