By Mamadou Edrisa Njie
A new report from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has shown the agency’s investment in West and Central Africa (WCA) over the past three decades and its current ongoing 40 programmes with investments totaling US$2.88 billion, of which US$1.51 billion is provided by IFAD.
Since 1982, IFAD has supported ten (10) projects and programmes in The Gambia for a total cost of US$196 million, of which IFAD contributed US $73.1 million. The support has focused on helping the government strengthen and empower farmers through their organisations and communities, with an emphasis on managing watershed, promoting access to markets and linkages to value chains, creating rural financial and credit services, livestock development and research, extension and training.
The report further indicated that IFAD has stepped up financial commitments in the region in response to the challenges it faced, including through grant-funded innovations supported by climate and environmental finance.
IFAD is revitalizing existing partnerships and seeking new ones. The introduction of new products like Results-based Lending and Regional Operations will help the institution become a more trusted development partner in the region, with positive spillovers in terms of co-financing.
By 2021, the report revealed, the WCA region is aiming at 100 per cent of projects mainstreaming climate and environment, 50 per cent mainstreaming youth and youth employment, and at least 25 per cent being climate-focused, 25 per cent gender-transformative and 50 per cent nutrition-sensitive. These ambitious targets are framed by Agenda 2030, and IFAD is reaching out to partners–including smallholders themselves, who have phenomenal potential–in an urgent bid to break silos and entrenched fragilities so as to achieve the full potential of this region.
A report released in November, 2019, entitled the “West and Central Africa {WCA} Advantage, Fighting fragility for smallholder resilience” pointed out that the integration of initiatives that fight climate change, improve nutrition, and foster women’s and youth empowerment give IFAD’s programmes a higher chance of success and bigger impact, minimizing trade-offs and risks.
The report review was prepared by the IFAD Environment, Climate, Gender and Social Inclusion Division based on project documentation, interviews and references was prepared by: Soma Chakrabarti, Independent Consultant.
The report also presented challenges and achievements of projects in WCA that are supported by IFAD and in The Gambia, IFAD financed project- the National Agricultural Land and Water Management Development Project (Nema) including Strengthening Climate Resilience of the Nema-Chosso project was included in the report.
IFAD-supported action
Nema means “prosperity” in the Mandinka language, and the overall goal of the Nema project is indeed to reduce poverty among women and youth, and specifically to increase incomes from improved productivity based on sustainable land and water management.
As indicated by the authors of the report, the Nema project is designed for women, who are the core rice and vegetable producers in the country, and poor young men and women have also been targeted for market-oriented vegetable production and agricultural businesses in the seven years from 2013- 2019.
The project has also been engaging with value-addition actors, service providers and operators in the rice and vegetable markets, including producers’ organizations and small and medium-sized enterprises through a component on agricultural commercialization. This component, the report added, has been working to promote a sustained uplift in the level of agricultural business activity in profitable primary production and supporting services such as mechanical land preparation, rice milling and transport by both youth-led enterprises and producer organizations.
The Nema project has been strengthening the technical and management capacity of producer groups in economic activities in which they have a comparative advantage, and has provided training to women kafos (self-help groups) and youth groups, including basic marketing, negotiating skills and business counselling but also seeds.
In the Nema project implementation, youth groups have also been targeted to make them aware of employment opportunities in agriculture and share experiences. An innovative agribusiness development facility, the Capital Investment Stimulation Fund with private sector participation, has been piloted to stimulate medium-term financial services adapted to group and individual small enterprises.
Two case studies were conducted on the Nema project that gives concrete examples of two smallholder farmer beneficiaries, namely Ms. Jalima Cham, a 29-year-old from Pakalinding village in the Lower River Region (LRR), and Mrs. Awa Bah, in the North Bank Region (NBR).
As deduced from the report, Ms. Cham, is a young yet, very experienced farmer involved in the production of vegetables in The Gambia. She is said to have attended a series of trainings in smallholder agriculture and “is now sharing her expertise with 252 women farmers in the community garden of Pakalinding”.
Described as a facilitator of the local farmer field school, which is supported by IFAD, Jalima teaches techniques such as crop watering, organic compost preparation and solar-powered system management.
“My role here is to help these women prepare to develop this garden and move things forward by themselves”, she was quoted as saying.
The report further indicated that, in the North Bank Region (NBR), Mrs. Amie Bah of Balal Kafo in the Sabach Sukoto Fula community {in Sabach Sanjal District} has received a matching grant to purchase a tractor.
“Before my association with Nema and the approval of my application, our entire community struggled to access tractors to plough our fields in good time. The demand–supply gap for ploughing services was so wide that we either had to plough our fields manually or risk waiting late into the cropping season before we could access tractors from other areas. This has all changed with the advent of the Nema CISF scheme,” acknowledged the Sabach Sukoto Nema matching beneficiary.
She’s also reported saying: “Since the purchase of my tractor, we are able to undertake land preparation and planting on time for the community of Sabach and its surroundings.
“For women rice farmers in our community, this has been a life-changing scheme. Labour-intensive manual land preparation has been a back-breaking experience for generations of women in our community.”
The report noted that since the purchase of her tractor, Amie has been breaking the cycle of labour-intensive land preparation which is indeed, important for increased rice productivity and incomes. In addition, she stated “we must also acknowledge the nutrition, health and social effects on women and their young children”.
Ms. Bah was said to have received her tractor in 2018, and already has generated enough to settle more than 75 per cent of her loan from an equipment supplier. “She has also saved enough to maintain her tractor and ensure continued business operation,” the report disclosed.
Nema project results
As of end February 2018, the Nema project had reached 10,175 households out of 12,700 targeted, where 80 per cent of the beneficiaries are female.
The Nema project water-related infrastructure has been constructed and/or rehabilitated in over 20,000 hectares of farmland in upland, tidal areas and especially lowland areas. Around 500 hectares of land has been developed using climate-resilient practices, and the manuals of farmers’ literacy programme and farmer field schools have been updated to integrate climate change adaptation and resilience.
Since 2013, with the Nema project implementation, more than 36 kilometres of inter-village and farm-to-market access roads in the six agricultural regions of the country have been built and/or rehabilitated, supporting an increase in profitable trade in rice and vegetables produced by small-scale farmers in terms of volume, quality and value addition.
The access roads have stimulated the productive use of 3,000 hectares of farmland opened up for rice production alone, connected rural communities to markets and value chain actors, and improved access to social services such as hospitals, clinics and schools.
The Nema project has supported the consolidation of six cluster producer organizations (cooperatives) in the rice production belts of the North Bank (Salikeni and Jurunku), Lower River (Pakalinding), Central River/South (Kudang and Boiram) and Central River/North (Barajally Suba) regions of the country.
The six cooperatives, spanning 25 villages, now have a total membership of more than 12,000 members, including elected executive committees and legal instruments needed to operate. Each cooperative now has a savings mechanism to support operations and ensure sustainability: in 2018 alone, their total savings were in excess of 5 million Gambian dalasi.
Through the Nema project, IFAD has worked with the government to draw up a national rice development strategy, in collaboration with key partners such as the Coalition for African Rice Development, which recognizes the key role of women and potential for youth employment.
At the grassroots level, women’s and youth access to land accrues through male relatives or spouses, so the National Women Farmers’ Association, with support from the Women’s Bureau, conducted a successful campaign to help women’s kafos secure access rights to their vegetable gardens. This resulted in community authorities signing contracts to guarantee land rights for kafos members; although such contracts have no legal value, they are recognized at the local level and can be considered a policy innovation.
About 5,300 farmers (women’s groups and youth) have been trained in integrated pest management, the use of improved seeds and climate change issues. Over 10,500 women have been trained in climate-resilient production practices and/or technologies.
Under a sub-component on youth inclusion, Nema project has supported the “Global Youth Innovation Network” Gambia chapter since 2017. Young people are also receiving support to prepare business plans and business development services, financing and coaching. Nema is financing an analysis of business opportunities for youth in the rice and vegetable value chains and aims at getting 60 young women and men into profitable agribusiness, for which they also benefit from priority access to the Capital Investment Stimulation Fund.
Since the Nema design, IFAD has renewed its commitment to nutrition and Nema aims to reduce child malnutrition in targeted households by 30 per cent and to improve their annual self-sufficiency in rice.
The project is integrating nutrition into crop planning, literacy classes, farmer field schools and awareness-raising on horticulture and climate change adaptation. Partners are also key – FAO and several NGOs have organized awareness campaigns on the nutritional value of crops and FAO is preparing guidelines to integrate nutrition in farmer field schools.
Increased vegetable production also has excellent potential to improve nutritional status, and IFAD is aware of the need to encourage smallholders to consume their own nutritious produce rather than selling everything, as part of a multipronged approach.
