Mr. Lamin Camara, a former Permanent Secretary (PS) and now Deputy Head of Mission at the Gambian Embassy in the Portuguese-speaking West African state of Guinean Bissau, is not only engaged in a white-collor job, but also heavily involved in agricultural activities in the Niumi villages of Buniadu and Jurunku, respectively in North Bank Region of The Gambia.
In an exclusive WhatsApp interview with Mansa Banko Online Newspaper on February 14, 2021, the senior government official and native of Buniadu who said he was born and grew up in a farming community, has expatiated on his farming activities, disclosing both his parents are farmers and that he developed passion for the field since childhood, because most of his basic needs were provided through farming.
The diplomat cited the challenges in farming, noting it’s capital intensive, in that it requires “huge investment”; that getting a fence for security [of his garden], and water supply, are other grave hurdles that he faces at the moment, as well as the lack of proper harvesting and threshing machines. He added that the unavailability of spare parts for such machines in the Gambia is also another challenge; lamenting a huge post-harvest loss of his rice due to the above-mentioned challenges, while calling for support to enable him purchase his own machines, since such machineries cost a lot of money.
Camara runs the Dambelkoto Agricultural Center of Excellence and Farms in Buniadu, and rice field in Jurunku where he grows varieties of crops and vegetables, namely oranges, mangoes, cashews, cocoa, Malaysian palm trees, cassava and vegetables–for sustainable income generation and also for family consumption.
“I do rice farming as it is the staple food for majority of Gambians. This year, I am one year rice sufficient; as I harvested about three hundred (300) of the fifty (50) kilograms of bags of paddy rice,” the Gambian diplomat revealed.
Pointing out that over the years, cassava and cashew nuts, cocoa and palm trees have boosted his income, Camara explained the cocoa and palm trees are for medium and long-term sustainability plans.
He grows the ‘Kent’ mango variety which, he said, is popular for export.
The seasoned academic, who also held several positions in government, including PS at Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA), and PS at Agriculture Ministry, acknowledged he has achieved a lot, saying he was able to generate income from his agricultural undertakings to take care of his household needs.
Camara said he mostly eats what he grows, and currently, the rice in his store could take care of his family for a year; and he still has enough to sell and generate income.
He held that his farming level has now passed subsistence farming, stressing the goal is to go commercial and develop a center where all agricultural activities could be accessed, ranging from horticulture, agro-forestry, bee-keeping, livestock to aquaculture, as he also spoke of value addition.
The public servant-cum-farmer believes for the Gambia to achieve its national agriculture endeavours of food self-sufficiency, the country must be ready to invest a lot in agriculture and allow the private sector to participate; maintaining “there we can achieve it”.
