By Sanna Camara
As a key priority of the transition government’s development blueprint, President Adama Barrow is aggressively pursuing the agenda of agricultural transformation from rudimentary to mechanized production. The agenda is to make agriculture a key economic player.
Hence in preparation for the 2019 rainy season, the government has unveiled plans to ensure farmers’ access to inputs. Some 260 agricultural equipment, ranging from rice and coarse grain threshers, milling machines, power tiller accessories, pumping machines and five 20ft container freezers will be disbursed to cooperatives groups, farmer’s associations and cluster communities in 11 districts across rural Gambia.
Agriculture is considered the backbone of the Gambia’s economy. It provides employment for 70 per cent of the population, a great source of exports, foreign exchange earnings for the economy and food security for the citizens. To succeed in agricultural transformation under the national development Plan, the chronic problems of the agricultural sector cannot be solved in piecemeal. Rather, a comprehensive all-inclusive strategy that cuts across different sectors will deliver a sustainable solution to the said problem.
This new concept will link other sectors such as energy, roads, tourism, forestry and trade are linked to agriculture for harnessing of its value chain. That is why the infrastructure projects such as road networks, the tourism masterplan and other sectoral strategies being implemented by the government will become key to this agricultural development plan.
At a press conference held at the State House in Banjul, Foroyaareporter, Kebab Mamboureh asked the President’s spokesperson, Mrs. Amie Bojang- Sissoho (Twitter: @AmieBSissoho) questions relating to subsidized costs of fertilizer, its timely delivery and transportation to the farmlands that are mainly hundreds of kilometres away from the capital. These foreign exchange earners that boost the export basket and fill the mills of the processing industries are not sourced from the offices of State House, or the conference halls of Quadrangle. Rather, they grow from the tilled soils of farmlands in Wuli, Niamina, the Kiangs and Jarras.
“7500 metric tonnes of fertilizer for the 2019 rainy season,” Amie Bojang-Sissoho said. The Ministry of Agriculture in partnership with National Food Security, Processing and Marketing Corporation (formerly GGC) is already procuring these for the farmers. Also, with support from Japan, an additional 600 tonnes of fertilizer and 30 tonnes of assorted seeds will be available to farmers this year.
Fertilisers and seeds are the most important for the farmer in preparation for the rainy season, of course, beside the land. Hence to encourage and empower farmers to have their own seeds, the Ministry of Agriculture in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN, through European Union funding, will procure certified seeds from Gambian seed growers.
“Locally, 56% of groundnut seed, 71% of maize and 100% of Findi that are needed for this rainy season are already available. In addition, 11,457 households identified in the Upper River, Central River North and South; Lower River and the North Bank regions will be given FAO procured seed and fertilizer,” she told journalists.
Out of these, 25% of the beneficiary households are headed by women, and 75% of them headed by men. All of these households are in need of input support for the 2019/20 cropping season.
In reality, it saddens the government that despite such a big potential in agriculture, the country’s youths were on massive outflow to Europe due to lack of employment opportunities.
There are also ongoing discussions between The Gambia government and Egypt to create jobs for the youth through agriculture, following President Barrow’s visit to Egypt in December 2018. Some 3, 000 hectares of land has been identified for rice cultivation and poultry farming in the Nianija district of the Central River Region.
Learning from China experience: 15% of needed rice is not enough
President Adama Barrow, maintains that for The Gambia to be successful in rice cultivation, or be self-sufficient in the production of the stale food, the country must learn from the People’s Republic of China.
“The reality is clear: if we rely wholly on the rice cultivated in the country, which is about 15 per cent of what is needed annually, we will starve as a nation,” the President observed, as he preside over the signing ceremony marking the delivery of 2,700 metric tonnes of rice as a humanitarian gesture to support farmers affected by floods last year. In 2018, China also gave 2,500 tonnes of rice to Gambia.
The President said it is not a wonder that most of the rice consumed in The Gambia is still imported, considering the consumption and the production difference. The Gambia, rich in water resources and fertile soil resources, also has favourable natural conditions for development of modern agriculture. Hence this cooperation with China is expected to boost food production for local imports. Since resuming bilateral ties in 2017, The Gambia and the People’s Republic of China signed several cooperation agreements. One of them is to develop Gambia’s agriculture sector, particularly rice production.
In order to implement the consensus reached by President Xi Jinping and President Barrow, Ambassador Jianchun announced in April 2019 that the agricultural cooperation between the two countries will resume this year.
The China agricultural expert team will come to The Gambia to carry out demonstration in the Sapu, Central River Region South (CRR South) on whole industry chain of paddy rice and vegetable crops. This will also include agricultural machinery operation and maintenance. They will train local agricultural technicians and provide certain agricultural machinery to The Gambia.
