22 March 2023, Banjul – Dr. Demba Sabally, Hon. Minister of Agriculture today presided over the official handing over of 35 brand new laptops worth over Three Million Gambian Dalasi (GMD3,000,000.00) to key Implementing Partners (IPs) of the Gambia Inclusive and Resilient Agricultural Value Chain Development project (GIRAV). The project procured the laptops with a view to facilitate the work of the 18 IPs to help minimize their technology gap.
GIRAV is a five-year project funded by the World Bank through a grant of US$40 million to promote the development of inclusive, resilient, and competitive agricultural value chains, with specific focus on smallholder farmers and agribusinesses in The Gambia. The Ministry of Agriculture is the project’s executing agency and it is being implemented by the Central Projects Coordinating Unit (CPCU) of the Ministry throughout the country in close partnership with 18 IPs.
In his keynote address, Dr. Demba Sabally, Hon. Minister of Agriculture described the handing over ceremony as a great moment for the ministry and the sector at large. He noted that the gesture is a clear demonstration of his ministry’s drive to transforming the agriculture sector from subsistence smallholder farming to commercial and digitalized data driven for national food security, nutrition and economic growth as enshrined in the national development plan.
“This is the central pillar in our second-generation agricultural investment plan and as envisaged by His Excellency, The President, Mr. Adama Barrow. As the project is going digital, these items are meant to support the Ips to improve on their information technology needs with regards to data collection, storage, processing, analysis and reporting”, he noted. He implored the heads of the beneficiary institutions to assign the laptops to the project’s focal points.
Dr. Sabally used the opportunity to acknowledge the project’s 2022 seed programme which enabled over 11,000 farmers (60%women and 35% youth) to have access to high quality certified climate smart seeds including 200 metric tones of rice of different varieties and 50 metric tones of maize of different varieties. He said: As far as productivity is concerned, preliminary analysis from the seed programme shows that yields per hectare have doubled from a baseline of 2 metric tones per hectare to about 5 to 6 metric tones per hectare for rice and an average yield of 4 to 5 metric tons per hectare of maize”.
In 2022, the GIRAV project procured and handed over to the Department of Agriculture 100 Tablets and 50 motorcycles to facilitate the work of the extension workers in data collection, storage, processing, analysis and reporting as well as to facilitate mobility for effective delivery of extension services in the field. Minister Sabally said: “This support alone goes to underscore the importance the Ministry and project attaches to digitalizing its interventions being implemented by the Ips. Dr. Sabally urged the recipients of the laptops to be true to the mission which is to collect real time agricultural data and be reported on time to the project. He reiterated the project and his ministry’s unwavering commitment to further help build capacities of IPs in Monitoring and Evaluation, social safeguards issues, agronomic practices as well as on digital data collection, storage, processing, analysis and reporting.
Mr. Paul Mendy, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for the GIRAV project and the CPCU chaired the event held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel.
