Banjul — A major aspiration in our national development blue print, the Vision 2020 is food self-sufficiency. The current leadership approaches this aspiration by calling on the citizenry to go back to the land so that we can produce and consume our own food, as well as produce surplus for export, to stabilise our balance of payment and development at large.

The president did not make this back-to-the-land initiative a mere lip service but rather leads by example. Regardless of his social status, President Jammeh cultivates his own farms as a role model and so that collectively we can progressively march towards achieving our food self-sufficiency desire. It is therefore, a success story that the efforts of the president is paying devidend as a bumper harvest is expected on the presidential farms this season.

It is impressive however, to note that the government did not only stop at making the initiative in a manner that will only permit farmers to have their own farms, but it has also teamed up with outside partners to ensure that high quality and fast growing products are available for our agricultural development process. The joint cooperation between the government of The Gambia and the Republic of Taiwan to expand the country's rice cultivation project is indeed remarkable. We have during the start of the season witnessed the disbursement of some 1260 metric tons of fertilizer by the Republic of Taiwan.

Moreover, the president's personal efforts to the agriculture sector and towards the promotion of the back-to-the-land initiative cannot be over- emphasised. He distributed numerous tractors to the various regions to boost their momentum of preparations for the planting season. There has been allocation of special tractors to the Green youths in particular in those areas to enable them galvanize their efforts at their farms at the beginning of the farming season. Other and similar groups as the Green youth across the country, who have benefited from similar gestures from the president have undertaken immense farming activities in response to his back-to-the-land call.

This development is an indication that if we take active step towards agricultural ventures it will result to the maximisation of production and acquisation of food self-sufficiency. We are therefore grateful to farmers have taken ownership of these materials and are making maximum utilization of them which resulted to high hopes for a bumper harvest. It is evident that a major goal of President Jammeh is to transform this country into a food self-sufficient nation. This is because the revolutionary leadership has realized that development cannot be achieved if we continue to depend on outside for feeding.

President Jammeh's strong determination to put our food self-sufficiency drive into context cannot be over emphasized. The back-to-the-land initiative is speaking for itself. What is more important is that the people, with the help of the national policies must be willing to resort to farming in order to feed not only the family but also the nation at large.

Despite the high expectation for a bumper harvest, we cannot but reiterate the call of the president to the youths. They are the cream of the society. Venturing into farming operations will greatly serve as a catalyst to curtailing the phenomenon of unemployment and hence permit them to live a respectable standard of living. This is because marketing their produce at the end of the season will undoubtly permit them to raise a handsome amount of money that can be invested into lucrative trade. The fundamental pillar to achieving all these is simply attitudinal change.