Mr. Mod Secka, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture has reaffirmed the Gambian Government’s commitment towards the attainment of food and nutrition security, sustainable socio-economic growth and shared prosperity. Mr. Secka made the remarks during a 5-day nationwide joint monitoring mission to intervention sites of the six active agriculture projects being executed by his Ministry and Implemented by the Central Projects Coordinating Unit (CPCU), a body responsible for overseeing the implementation of all agricultural projects in the Gambia.

The mission by the Senior Management of Agriculture and key stakeholders was designed to gather firsthand information on field activities and to assess the impact of projects interventions on the target beneficiaries.

The team led by Mr. Secka comprised the Coordinator of the CPCU, Projects Directors, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialists, Director General of the Department of Agriculture, Director General of the Gambia Livestock Marketing Agency, senior staff of NARI, the Department of Livestock Services and the National Seed Secretariat.

The team visited 28 intervention sites supported by the various projects including the World Bank funded Gambia Inclusive and Resilient Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (GIRAV); Islamic Development Bank funded Small Ruminant Production Enhancement Project (SRPEP); The Rice Value Chain Transformation Programme (RVCTP); the African Development Bank (AfDB) funded Gambia Agriculture and Food Security Project and the AfDB/BADEA funded Regional Rice Value Chain Development Project (RRVCDP) and The Resilience of Organizations for Transformative Smallholder Agriculture Project (ROOTS) which is co-funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the OPEC Fund for International Development, the GEF Least Developed Countries Fund the French Development Agency (AFD), the Government of The Gambia and the Project’s beneficiaries.

During their interaction with the team, farmers expressed gratitude to the Government, Ministry of Agriculture and the projects and the implementing agencies for their lives changing interventions. They explained that because of the support being provided by the projects in the form of free seeds and subsidized ploughing services and fertilizers, they have been motivated to increase the areas utilized to cultivate rice, maize, cowpea and groundnuts. They expressed optimism for a bumper harvest. They however singled out limited and timely access to ploughing and threshing machines as a major challenge and appealed for support from the government.

Speaking at the sites visited, Mr. Secka observed with appreciation the performance of crops as well as the implementation status of other sub-projects. He thanked farmers for making good use of the projects interventions and urged them to take full ownership of the investments. He encouraged farmers to reserve their own seeds for next cropping season from their produce noting that projects interventions are time bound.

Mr. Secka also enjoined the Regional Governors to also promote the adoption and production of climate smart crops on a large scale to contribute to increased agricultural production and productivity.

Responding to calls for support with farming implements such as seeders, tractors and threshers, Mr. Secka advised the Project Directors to procure more light equipment such as power tillers, seeders and threshers to enable farmers to access services on time to help scale up the production of drought and salt tolerant, early maturing and high yielding rice varieties  to accelerate the achievement of the national drive for self-sufficiency in rice by 2030.  He also observed that the growing poultry industry provides a good opportunity to scale up maize production.

Responding to concerns raised by poultry farmers in regards to limited market for their produce particularly the eggs due to the cheap imports, Mr. Secka noted their worries and informed them that he will meet with the relevant stakeholders during the first week of October to discuss the issue and explore alternatives with a view to addressing the problem in a progressing manner. He however encouraged them to form cooperatives and establish contacts with the local farmers so that they can buy the surplus maize grains and thus help cutdown their expenditure on the importation of maize for poultry feeds production.

Mr. Secka also disclosed that his Ministry is in the process of rolling out a dairy farming pilot project from early 2024 as part of the agriculture transformation agenda to promote the creation of jobs and wealth as well as to improve food security and nutrition.  He called on the beneficiaries of the livestock pasture/feed gardens provided by the SRPEP to ensure the proper management of the sites as well as to scale up production to improve the availability of livestock feeds and thus help reduce the crops farmers – herders conflict.

For their part, the Coordinator of the CPCU and the GIRAV Project Mr. Abdoulie Touray and the Directors of the other projects all reiterated their commitment to improving the lives and livelihoods of the farmers. They assured the farmers that their concerned and noted and the projects will do their best to ameliorate them in the short, medium and long term. They also stressed the need for farmers to take ownership of the interventions and ensure their sustainability beyond the project period.