Population migration started around the end of the colonial era by the independent state and this was organised and planned in North Cameroon. Populations in the overcrowded areas of the Far North region,which is more arid and less favorable for agriculture, were accompanied by development projects that were responsible for overseeing the recolonisation and exploitation of its important agricultural and forestry potential. The pastoral zone is located south of this region. These areas, which are more watered, offer diversified agricultural and pastoral potential, ranging from lowlands suitable for the cultivation of muskwari (backyard sorghum) and rice, to land that is suitable for rainy food crops and cotton. More than half a century after the start-up and the end of these projects, and following a real arrogation of migration by the target populations, one would stake against the known agricultural potential of the zone, to an effective prosperity of "small farmers" fixed on this site. Due to the limited available literature regarding the constraints to the development of the last decade and the recent strong media coverage of social tensions on land and food insecurity, these issues have led us to formulate the hypothesis of a "sustainable underdevelopment" of the area. The results of this present surveys and synthesis of the archives reveal that socio-economic and administrative factors that hinder local development worsenand destabilize any innovation over time. The drivers of this underdevelopment are not unrelated to the inability of development projects or local government to integrate human and the migrant into the project of local development, but also to secure its productive resources at longer term.