The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Officer at the West Africa Livestock Innovation Centre (WALIC), Mr. Lamin Camara, has enlarged on the center’s activities, and the transformation taking place therein, during a recent interview he granted to this medium at his office in Kerr Serign. He pointed out that the WALIC is engaged in research and development of livestock in the Gambia.
The Center is undergoing transformation from the International Trypanotolerance Centre (ITC) to WALIC with the aim of turning it into a sub-regional livestock research center for West Africa, through an Act of Parliament by the National Assembly of The Gambia in 2016.
The M&E officer explained as a Center, they have set objectives and are in line with national development goals of the Gambia; saying they are working tirelessly for the Gambia to achieve the needed meat and milk production as well as consumption.
The Kerr Serign Center is the demonstration and research center on diary production and crossbreeding activities through artificial inseminations of varieties of livestock.
The senior official pointed out that the N’dama cattle milk production is very low but with artificial insemination, the breed could produce up to four litres of milk; whilst without such technologies, the N’dama usually produce only a litre per day. That they are also doing some open nucleus breeding program in Kiang Keneba, Lower River Region (LRR), where multiplication on the West African Dwarf (WAD) goat, the Djallonke Sheep and the N’dama cattle are carried out.
Camara stated that they use several methods to select these livestock for crossbreeding purposes, adding mostly, the animals taken to Kiang Keneba are breeds that could withstand the livestock diseases present in that part of the country.
“Those that survive the insects and diseases in Sololo and Kiang Keneba are finally given to farmers for an ongoing livestock multiplication program,” he told Mansa Banko Online.
WALIC is importing animal sperms from well-built European cattle species using what Camara described as ‘biotechnology’ through the process of artificial insemination of this semen/sperm into the local N’dama cattle that is available in the Gambia, for better meat and milk production for the local market. Such interventions are necessary looking at the massive population increase of the country, WALIC’s M&E officer charged.
He noted that the European breeds could produce up to twenty-five (25) litres per day, while the local N’dama cattle could only get one litter per day; and according to him, this necessitated the crossbreeding activities of their Center to increase meat and milk production for the Gambian population.
“We import the semen or sperm from Europe, prepare our N’dama female cattle by heating them through artificial hormone. We then inseminate the imported European sperm into our local N’dama; once they conceived, they give birth to the F1s–that is the first generation of crossbreeds,” he outlined.
In terms of the resistance capacity of these crossbred animals called the F1s in the Gambian local climate and diseases, M&E Officer Camara explained the center has an entomology unit which has mapped out the Gambia into different segments, and these segments would identify the riskier areas or areas with lower risks in term of diseases affecting livestock.
He termed Kerr Serign as a “lower challenged area” with lower insects or flies; Kiang as “medium challenged area” with slight number of insects or flies; while Sololo end in Central River Region is a “high challenged area” with high presence of flies or insects that cause cattle diseases and affect livestock in the Gambia
The ITC, which is being transformed to WALIC, was established purposely to research on Trypanosomiasis disease which, as Camara held, is very prevalent and attacking livestock in the Gambia. He cited funding and human resources as their challenges because the center is now under WALIC and not ITC-which has enough human capacity to conduct such researches. They are now trying to forge partnership with the Department of Livestock Services [of the Agriculture Ministry] in the Gambia, to solve the issue of human capacity.
Camara underlined that milk production by livestock is dictated by the environment as well as the body size of the animal; and that naturally, the N’dama cattle weighs few kilograms and the Gambian environment is largely no longer favourable due to several climatic conditions arising from climate change.
The official bemoaned: “All our natural water ponds are now dry; the rainfall patterns are unpredictable; grazing of livestock becomes challenging due to climate change and its effects; and now farmers are struggling daily against all these challenges in the Gambia.”
As Camara indicated, the next step at WALIC is coming up with latest farming technologies by growing grass farms that could withstand long spell of drought, in order to feed their cattle, but also expand these methods to the local Gambian farmers for wider use. He averred that the cost of feeding takes about seventy (70) percent of the production process in livestock rearing.
The Monitoring and Evaluation officer disclosed that, at the moment, they have commenced a program where they are working with Village Development Communities (VDCs) to introduce some new breeds of cattle, goats and sheep into the local communities; and already 10 of those communities have been selected.
