The Daily Observer (Banjul)
Musa Ndow
8 July 2009
In its continued show of support to member countries in the fight against poverty and household food insecurity amidst the continued dire economic situations the world over, the FAO Gambia office, under its Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) on inputs supply, as part of its initiative on soaring food prices, last Tuesday presented some production inputs, worth over D6.5 million, to the Ministry of Agriculture, for onward supply to deserving farmers in the Western Region, North Bank Region and Lower River Region.
The presentation was done at a ceremony held at the Department of Agricultural and Livestock headquarters in Abuko. The presented items include 5 power tillers, 3 metric tons of Nerica rice, and 200 tons of fertilizer. Receiving the materials, Bakary Trawalley, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, applauded FAO for their intervention in the agricultural sector. He remarked that FAO's interventions will enhance the work of MOA and the production capacity of farmers, adding that modern agriculture is what the agricultural sector needs and that their intention is to compete with others in other parts of the world.
PS Trawalley added that The Gambia government will continue to collaborate with them as their plan is to be a supplier of food to other parts of the world, rather than an importer. PS Trawalley informed the ceremony that his ministry is expecting tons of fertilizers to be distributed to farmers in the country. He further emphasized on the sector's readiness for what he called "fundamental change." Trawally used the occasion to call on Gambians in the Diaspora to support agricultural development in the country.
For his part, Dr Thomas Sukuwu, WHO resident coordinator, deputising for the FAO country representative, expressed concern over the impact of high food prices in developing countries especially low-income, food importing ones. According to him, this initiative was launched by the director general to respond to a crisis that threatens to push millions of people back into the vicious cycle of hunger and poverty. "High food prices have become a matter of survival for some 2 billion people worldwide," he said, adding that this initiative is meant to boost the food production in the short term, and that it has two simple but effective goals, which are distribution of seeds, fertilizers and animal feed as well as distribution of other farming tools to farmers.
In this regard, he said, in 2008, FAO had approved a US$250,000 TCP project for The Gambia to address the impact of the soaring food prices.
He said this project will assist about 3,000 vulnerable households to ensure access to agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilizer and power tillers), in an effort to increase agricultural production capacity. According to the FAO boss, the expected outcome of this project is that the dependence of vulnerable house holds on food imports is decreased and food security situation of the vulnerable households improved upon. Sait Drammeh, director general of Agriculture, also spoke at the ceremony, which was chaired by Musa Dampha, deputy director of Agricultural Extension Services.
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