By Mamadou Edrisa Njie
After 54 years of Independence, Gambians witnessed the appointment of the first female Minister for Agriculture (MoA), Hon. Amie Fabureh- a specialist in horticulture coupled with vast experience working with smallholder farmers across the length and breadth of the country.
Madam Fabureh, on Wednesday, 25th December, 2019 spoke to Mansa Banko Online, on various issues ranging from her ministry’s budget 2020 allocation increment, timely distribution of fertilizer to farmers, seeds to farming equipment and inputs, under dispensation of President Adama Barrow.
According to Hon. Fabureh, the present government puts a lot of emphasis on smallholder farmers, thus providing all the necessary mechanisms in ensuring that the livelihood of Gambian farmers is improved.
“I thank President Adama Barrow for breaking the records by appointing me as the first female Minister for Agriculture, after 54 years self-rule.
“My appointment as the Minister for Agriculture, also shows the great commitment the government puts on women empowerment, thus bringing women to the forefront of national development,” Madam Fabureh remarked, in a cheerful mood.
As a female head of Government Ministry, on a daily basis, she told this medium, “I’m looking at the plight of women farmers and how can we boost the productivity of our farming system.”
The Gambia, she lamented, is unfortunate that after 54 years of self-rule, the country cannot still attain food self-sufficiency with the availability of river Gambia, land and other natural resources.
Fabureh is hopeful that the D100 million budget increment for her ministry would help it, “if not all, but very closer to addressing” the plight of Gambian farmers in purchasing of seeds, fertilizer and farming inputs.
Referencing the 2020 budget increment for her Ministry, Minister Fabureh believed if that trend continues and the support of international donors also keep flooding, the country in years to come, will attain food self-sufficiency.
Reinforcing her views, she said the Agric Ministry has developed good policies geared towards addressing food self-sufficiency in the country.
Madam Fabureh gave the Chairperson of National Assembly Select Committee on Agriculture and Member for Janjanbureh, Hon. Mod Ceesay, a pat on the back for leading the debate to persuade the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA) to consider the budget increment for her Ministry.
However, she opined that the 2020 budget allocated to MoA “is still small”, reasoning that, “Agricultural sector is the backbone of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)”; and the Minister referred to the Maputo Declaration which called for African governments to allocate 10 percent of their national budget to the agricultural sector.
Notwithstanding her aforestated view regarding the portion of the 2020 budget allocated to her Ministry, the Minister is still confident that with the support of donors like the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), African Development Bank (AfDB), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), among others, the agricultural sector’s production and productivity in the year 2020, “will increase”.
Madam Fabureh said in 2019, her Ministry has achieved a lot, citing the timely distribution of fertilizer to farmers, in May 2019. This, she claimed, has increased production in this year’s farming season despite erratic rainfall. She noted that this year they didn’t have fertilizer problems, in contrast to the previous years when farmers bitterly complained of late supply of fertilizer.
The government has subsidized the price of fertilizer from D1,700.00 to D700.00–which was the selling price for this year’s fertilizer to farmers across the country, she refreshed.
On the groundnut season, the country’s female Minister of Agriculture reminded that in 2018, the Barrow government purchased groundnuts at D17,500.00 per ton, while in 2019, it price was pegged at D18, 000.00 per ton.
The timely supply of fertilizer to farmers and the purchasing of their groundnuts by cash, she argued, manifested the steps that the current government took in helping smallholder farmers.
The head of Agric Ministry used the interview to commend the National Agricultural Land and Water Management Development Project (Nema) for the support given to farmers this year; that is to say provision of tractors, power-tillers, combined harvesters, milling machines and many other farming inputs.
Fabureh disclosed that what they are yearning for in 2020 as a Ministry, along with the agricultural projects and supports from their development partners, “is scaling-up the value chain”.
The Minister also acknowledged the National Seed Secretariat for purchasing quality seeds from the Seed Growers Association, which, she pronounced, has contributed in supporting smallholder farmers. As she underlined, the money that would have been invested outside the country to buy seeds for the farmers, was instead, invested in the country.
“This is another positive move in 2019,” Mansa Banko Online heard from the woman in-charge of the nation’s Ministry of Agriculture.
