The Gambia Government through the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) on Thursday 27th April 2023, officially received the first consignment of the 15,000 Metric tons of assorted fertilizer it has procured for the upcoming cropping season at a brief ceremony at the Kerr Ayib Border, NBR.
The MoA procured the fertilizer through a USD10 million grant from the Work Bank through the Gambia Inclusive and Resilient Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (GIRAV). The assorted consignment comprises 5 Metric Tons of NPK: 15.15.15, 5 Metric Tons of NPK: 10.20.10 and 5 Metric Tons of Urea: 00-46-00 packaged in 50 kilo-gramme bags.
Mrs. Fatou Jammeh Touray, Deputy Permanent Secretary responsible for Projects and programmes, MoA accompanied by Mr. Abdoulie Touray, Coordinator of the Central Project Coordinating Unit (CPCU) and the GIRAV project and his team, Mr. Abdoulie Touray of the NFSPMC, Dr. Demba Trawally, Deputy Director general of NARI and team and Mr. Dembo Samateh, Deputy Governor NBR, Ansumana Kinteh, Commissioner of Police for NBR and other members of the NBR Technical Advisory Committee were at the Kerr Ayib border post to officially receive the convoy of trucks delivering the first consignment of the assorted fertilizer
GIRAV is a USD 40 million five-year project funded by the World Bank through a grant. It is being executed by the (MoA) and implemented by it Central Project Coordinating Unit (CPCU) and 18 implementing partners across the Gambia targeting five priority value chains namely rice, maize, horticulture (including mango), cashew and poultry. The project aims to support and promote the development of inclusive, resilient, and competitive market oriented agricultural value chains with specific focus on smallholder farmers and agri-businesses.
In his introductory remarks, Mr. Abdoulie Touray, Coordinator of the CPCU and the GIRAV project explained that fertilizer is a critical input in agricultural production and productivity amidst low soil fertility.
He said: “Our soils are severely degraded and require serious nourishment and this is why the Government of the Gambia approached the World Bank for assistance to procure chemical fertilizer and generously the bank responded positively and gave the government a grant of USD10 Million through the GIRAV Project which is used to procure the fertilizers.
The CPCU Coordinator noted that OCP Africa is a reputable company that has been in the fertilizer business for decades Contribution to sustainable development of African agriculture.
He noted that the fertilizer programme will go a long way in contributing to the achievement of key targets of government policies and programmes and the National Development Plan.
He said: “The ultimate aim is to achieve food security, increase incomes and better lives for the farmers and the Gambian population. said. The project aims to move our agriculture from subsistence to commercial. However, in doing so, we ought to be careful of the fragile environment. This is why the project has put in place environmental and social safeguard measures which must be implemented and complied with in the implementation of any project related activity”.
Mrs. Fatou Jammeh Touray, Deputy Permanent Secretary for Projects and Programmes at the MoA highlighted soil infertility as one of the key factors driving low agricultural production and productivity in the Gambia. “The spiraling global economic crisis believed to be fueled by the Russia-Ukrain war is aggravating the situation as access to chemical fertilizers for our stallholder farmers to enrich the soils is becoming virtually impossible due to the high cost of the critical production input,” she stressed.
According to Mrs. Jammeh Touray, access to critical production inputs for Gambian farmers to address the perennial challenges of food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty remains a key priority for the Government of the Gambia. “This is why the Government made a request for assistance to the World Bank during the last quarter of 2022 to held procure an assorted consignment of chemical fertilizers to support the upcoming 2023 cropping season,”.
“The CPCU is working closely with the National Food Security, Processing, and Marketing Corporation and the Department of Agriculture and its decentralized structures to facilitate easy access of these fertilizers to our gallant smallholder farmers across the country.
Furthermore, the availability of fertilizer in the country will significantly increase both crop production and productivity this year. In addition to providing this critical production input, the GIRAV project ill in 2023, distribute 100 Metric Tons of high-quality certified maize seeds and 150 Metric Tons of Rice seeds of different varieties all of which are climate-smart varieties (early maturing, drought, salt, and flood tolerant and high yielding) to farmer across the country.
She asserted that the Ministry of Agriculture is working closely with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs to fix the price at a subsidized cost and this will be announced to the public in due course. To ensure there is sustainability in the provision of fertilizer, the proceeds realized from the sales of the fertilizer will be deposited at a special account at the Central Bank of The Gambia to serve as a Fertilizer Revolving Fund. “This initiative will help address the perennial problem of lack of fertilizer for the farming community,” she concluded.
In his welcome remarks on behalf of the Regional Governor, Dembo Samateh, Deputy Governor for the NBR applauded the initiative. He thanked the government for delivering on it promise to make fertilizer available to the farmer and on time. He expressed optimistic that the fertilizer programme will immensely contribute to increase in crops production and productivity and thus improving the lives and livelihoods of the farmers. He warned that there will be zero tolerance for abuse of the initiative stressing that “This fertilizer has been brought solely and only for the farmers and not for business people”.
Mr. Mohamed Benzekri, Vice President of OCP Africa – Senegal expressed gratitude to the Gambia Government and the World Bank for sourcing the fertilizer from them. He said his company was created to contribute to the sustainable development of African Agriculture and assured that they will measure up to expectations.
For his part, Ansumana Kinteh, Police Commissioner for NBR assured that the security services in the region will work accordingly to ensure the fertilizer reaches its destination safely. He also reiterated the need to ensure effective monitoring of the fertilizer to prevent its leakage across the border.
