has tried to encourage the Baka to establish permanent settlements, and some pygmy villages exist in the territory. Most of the Baka remain nomadic, however, living in temporary shelters of leaves and sticks. A much greater force acting to end the Baka's traditional lifestyle is intermarriage and assimilation into neighbouring tribes. Economy Agriculture The vast majority of the inhabitants of the region are subsistence farmers. Major crops are plantains south of Bertoua and Batouri and maize north of there. Farmers also raise many other crops in smaller quantities, including bananas, groundnuts, cocoyams, manioc, pineapples, oranges, mangoes, and yams. The dense forest and presence of the tsetse fly prohibits much cattle raising, but various livestock are raised for subsistence purposes, including pigs, sheep, goats, ducks, and chickens, as well as horses and donkeys in the extreme northeast. The Livestock Development Exploitation Organisation also runs a modern cattle ranch at Ndokayo in the province's northeast. Farms are mostly small-scale affairs planted in clearings in the forest. Farmers clear an area during the dry season using traditional implements such as axes and machetes. The area is then burned, with care taken to preserve fruit trees such as mangoes or plums. At the start of the wet season, spices and common vegetables are planted close to the home and tubers, such as cocoyams and manioc, are placed with plantains in larger plots farther afield. Farmyard manure is used as fertiliser. Crops are then harvested at the beginning of the next dry season. This method of slash-and-burn agriculture allows for high yields in the short term, but quickly exhausts the soil. Farms are thus moved every two to three years, and land must remain fallow for up to ten years once it has been drained in this way. With the East's low population density, however, this generally presents little problem. Commercial crops also exist. Cocoa and coffee are raised for profit in the areas of Abong-Mbang, Bertoua, and Yokadouma, as well as in the heavy forests south of these areas. Tobacco is grown in the plains north of Batouri. No large-scale commercial livestock exists in the East, though cattle from the northern regions of Cameroon are herded through the province on their way to market in Yaoundé. Hunting and gathering Crop growing is often supplemented by hunting and gathering, particularly in more rural areas. In fact, among the province's pygmies, these activities are carried out