By Mamadou Edrisa Njie
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – www.ifad.org -Supervision Mission, which is currently touring its funded projects in the country, on Tuesday, 8th July, 2019 had an audience with the Gambia’s Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Amie Fabureh, at her office in the Gambian capital, Banjul.
The delegation from this specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries, was led to the Minister’s office by the Project Director of National Agricultural Land and Water Management Development Project (Nema) in the Gambia, Mr. Momodou L. Gassama, together with staff of the Central Projects Coordinating Unit (CPCU).
The IFAD Country Programme Manager for Mauritania and The Gambia, Ms. Hauwa Sienta, saluted the country’s female Agriculture Minister, as she also wished her all the best, while hoping that she would succeed in all obligations.
She told Fabureh that IFAD has an ongoing Joint-Mission supervising Nema-Chosso project interventions, pointing out that this is the last mission as the Nema-Chosso is ending in December, 2019.
Mr. Cheikh Tidiane Sarr, International Consultant for Agricultural Development and Human Resources said the mission is very much impressed by the work done by Nema because it has impacted on the lives of Gambian women.
He hailed them for the achievements registered since the beginning of the collaboration, which he noted, are so promising as there are lots of improvements. According to Sarr, they are currently estimating about 87% to 90% disbursement of funds for the work. He added that the ASA Project is about 68% to 70% and the prospect is that by the end of December 2019, most of the work would be done.
“We are also very impressed by the enthusiastic situation of the women’s shown of ownership of whatever is being provided for them, in terms of improvements of the gardens like supplying of water, inputs and also teaching them how to make compost which is a very good approach for them to be able to sell their produce.
“We are also very impressed by the ownership of the project and commitment to sustain the project through the contribution body of the account, although we found out it is very low,” Sarr remarked.
He continued: “They promised to increase it because if their productivity increases, they will be able to contribute more. In that case, it will help them to be able pay for maintenance or replacement costs on the irrigation system or the solar panel and any other needs they may have as a group.
“We are also impressed by the fact that Nema has done some access roads,” he added.
This initiative, Secka hoped, would solve the women’s problem of accessing their farms and also help them to market their produce, thus increasing food security.
Mr. Pateh Saine, Climate Change Expert, in his intervention, said the newly designed Resilient Organizations for Transformative Smallholder Agriculture Project (ROOTS) Project would focus more on scaling up of the Nema Project.
Pointing out that the ROOTS project would focus more on food security and nutrition, he also underlined that the innovation here is more on access to markets.
The Climate Change Expert however, raised concerns over the issue of food and nutrition insecurity in the country as rice is still being imported and 90% of other goods. He stressed the urgent need for large scale rice production to avoid high importation of rice.
In Africa, as he observed, most of the goods are imported and there’s need for improved local production. He lauded the initiation of access to markets, which according to him, is not only for the Lumos (local markets) but for local consumption and for the tourism industry as well.
Describing Agriculture and Tourism as having the same economic importance, Saine indicated their moves to focusing on vegetable gardens, in setting up a rice production, and also reaching out to the tourism industry.
“We should look at how to modernize the sector to ensure that the vegetable gardens are upgraded in terms of good facilities, solar system, transportation system and cooling system,” posited Saine.
In her welcoming remarks, the Minister Agriculture, Amie Fabureh commended IFAD for the support they have rendered to The Gambia government over the years. She also thanked the Nema Project team, particularly its Director, Mr Momodou L. Gassama, for the livelihood intervention being provided for the women folk, which is manifested in the garden schemes.
The country’s first woman Agriculture Minister acknowledged that most of the women are earning a lot of money to enhance their livelihood thanks to the Nema supported gardens.
About IFAD Mission:
The IFAD Mission review past experiences, take stock of lessons learnt and identify best practices thus assess new investments priorities in the agriculture and natural resources sector, particularly around the rice and horticulture value-chains.
The Supervisory Mission identify project implementation modalities, assess public and private partnerships options, and leverage co-financing to blend IFAD’s contribution with other sources of public and private financing to achieve impact at scale.
About ROOTS Project:
The Resilient Organizations for Transformative Smallholder Agriculture Project (ROOTS) goal is to improve food security, nutrition, and resilience of smallholder farmers to climate change in the Gambia.
The project development objective (PDO) is to increase agricultural productivity and access to markets for enhanced food security and nutrition, and resilience of family farms and farmer organizations.
The project will consolidate Nema and previous IFAD projects in the existing five regions and targeted areas which have the highest poverty rate and most vulnerable to climate change: (i) Central River Region, (ii) North Bank Region, (iii) Lower River Region, (iv) West Coast Region, and(v) Upper River Region. In these regions, the project will focus on climate resilient value chain development (primary swamp rice
production and horticulture). Integrated farming systems and diversification (livestock, agroforestry, ecotourism) in partnership with other donor-funded projects will be promoted. Targeting of these regions also takes into account harmonization with other donor-supported programmes. Within these regions, the Programme will conduct a participatory process on the basis of data including Integrated Household Surveys, the FAO/WFP Cadre Harmonisé data and national nutrition surveys to target vulnerable and food and nutritional insecure smallholders.
The programme will directly benefit 40,000 households and indirectly 320,000 beneficiaries in 5 regions. Based on the recent poverty household survey of 2016, the targeting approach will seek to reach the poorest people and mitigate the risk of elite capture.
In line with IFAD new mainstreaming policy, ROOTS will place particular emphasis on youth and women groups under the age of 35 years engaged or willing to work on rice production and horticulture value chains. The project is commencing in 2020.
