allAfrica.com: Gambia: Strides in the Agric Sector (Page 1 of 3)

Agriculture continues to be one of the most important sectors, employing 80 to 85 per cent of the Gambian population. In this respect, government, over the years, maintained its policy objective of increasing agricultural output, improving national income and food security, and generating maximum foreign exchange earnings. Government also continued to collaborate vigorously with the donor community, private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to optimally achieve these objectives.

Since it is a prime area for investment, the required attention should not only be given to raising income and also improving food security, but also to effectively reducing poverty and enabling government to meet the Vision 2020 objectives and the Millennium Development Goals to 'halve the proportion of poor and those who suffer from hunger by 2015'.

In order to realise these objectives, ongoing agricultural projects such as the Participatory Integrated Watershed Management Project (PIWAMP), Rural Finance Project (RFP), Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS), and Farmer Managed Rice Irrigation Project (FMRIP) have all made considerable achievements. Growth in the agricultural sector has been consistently high since 2003, due to good and evenly spread rainfall, together with efforts to diversify the sector.

Livestock Development Program

In the livestock sub-sector, in order to bring coherence and recognise the regulatory and supervisory functions of government, the National Assembly reviewed The Gambia Livestock Marketing Bill 2004 in 2005. The bill was meant to repeal The Gambia Livestock Marketing Act of 1976, which became obsolete with the privatisation of the Livestock Marketing Board.

The sector continues to perform impressively by contributing to the livelihood of the rural population through enhancing food security, income generation, fulfillment of socio-cultural obligations, maintenance of soil fertility and the provision of draught power for crop production.

The new livestock program was therefore provided to improve production, productivity and increase farmers income and support to non-state actors in rural development.

Micro-finance institutions

On access to credit by small-scale farmers, the formation of micro-finance institutions countrywide has led to cumulative savings of over D60 Million by 67 Cooperative Unions registered across the country in 2007.

Below are major projects introduced by the present government to help improve the agricultural sector and work towards reducing poverty.

PIWAMP: The Participatory Integrated Watershed Management Project was initiated to reduce poverty by increasing total land productivity on a sustainable basis through sound environmental and natural resource management practices.

Funded by the African Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the PIWAMP was launched in April 2006 and tasked to empower farming communities to increase productivity of crops, livestock and forest resources at the grass-root level through the transfer and control of efficient land use management from government to the local communities.

The Farmer Managed Tidal Irrigation Project; was introduced to facilitate sustainable income improvement and increased rice production.

The Community Driven Rural Development Project (CRDP) was also initiated to reduce poverty and enhance the quality of life by mobilising and empowering communities to undertake activities which enhance livelihood such as agricultural productivity, farm and off-farm income generating activities and support for social capital development.

The Integrated Rural Sector Development Programme also came into effect to improve rural welfare through agricultural expansion and improved productivity in the low lands.

NERICA Rice: To achieve the goals of the sector and ensure food self-sufficiency, the government instituted the dissemination and cultivation of NERICA (New Rice for Africa) in 2007 which has been outstanding. This, coupled with the emergence of commercial farming, is an indication that the prospects for greater and diversified agricultural output are promising. Furthermore, evidence has indicated that land degradation has also slowed down.

Therefore, continued Nerica promotion to improve food security through increased rice production has yielded positive returns.

DoSA Restructuring process

With an excellent record and performance over the years, government continues to be fully committed to the revitalization and improvement of the Agricultural sector in order to ensure increased agricultural output, foreign exchange earnings, national food and income security.

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