By Ida L.B Ceesay
A delegation of senior GYINers from the Gambia, Wednesday, 29 May, 2019 met with the Director General of the Dakar-based Institut de Technologie Alimentaire-an Institute for Food Technology (ITA), Dr. Mamadou Amadou Seck.
The symbolic formal meeting between GYIN Gambia and the ITA DG, held at the latter’s office, is part of activities lined up for the team’s regional visit to Dakar, Senegal.
The Director-General welcomed the delegation with delight and assured them of his Institute’s support in responding to the organisation’s call.
Dr. Seck used the opportunity to brief the visitors on his Institute’s achievements and its area of expertise.
In an earlier similar engagement on 27th May, 2019 which marked the first day of GYIN Gambia’s regional visit, the delegation, comprising senior GYIN officials and five young Gambian entrepreneurs, led by the Director General of Wa YAbi Distribution, Madam Yama Ndiaye, held a fruitful meeting with the External Affairs Director of the Institut de Technologie Alimentaire – an Institute for Agribusiness Technology (ITA), Mr. Fallou Sarr in his office, at the ITA complex in Mariste.
The meeting was meant to have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Institute and GYIN Gambia in a bid to support and train young Gambian entrepreneurs in the areas of packaging, labeling and processing of food stuffs.
At the meeting, the head of GYIN Gambia Mr. Mamadou Edrisa Njie, gave a background history of GYIN Gambia.
Executive Director Njie pinpointed the organisation’s intervention areas such as the provision of entrepreneurship, agribusiness, and leadership training programmes for the rural youth folk. He informed that GYIN Gambia also provides technical guidance to young entrepreneurs through mentoring programmes.
As the Gambia’s chief GYINer indicated, his organisation is financially supported by the National Agricultural Land and Water Management Development Project (Nema), the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) as well as the Building Resilience Against Food and Nutrition Insecurity in the Sahel (P2RS). He noted that this particular visit is fully-funded by the Youth Empowerment Project.
After welcoming the team with utmost delight, External Affairs Director Sarr indicated that ITA is a center of “Excellence”, and the only certified center in the African region “to test aflatoxin”.
He added that the Center offers training programmes to interested individuals and groups for research and other laboratory tests.
Director Sarr is positive that the inking of an MoU between ITA and GYIN Gambia would be of mutual benefit for both parties. He further expressed interest in providing training for young people in the follow-up GYIN Gambia’s Entrepreneurship Leadership Information and Technology (ELIT) National Youth Summer Camp.
The ITA senior official further informed the delegation that they usually receive participants from Guinea Bissau, Mali and other countries in the sub-region, for training sessions.
He saluted GYIN Gambia for having the foresight to come up with such an initiative, to expose its members to learn from Senegalese sectors, noting that value addition means earning more money from your products.
From the Institute, the visiting team later proceeded to a Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) supported micro-garden in collaboration with Dakar Ville situated in Grand-Dakar.
Managed by a trained gardener, Madam Ouly Seck, the garden is a combination of different fruit and vegetable crops, and also medicinal plants being planted in groundnut shells.
Seck also engages in sheep fattening, poultry production, and aquaculture.
