The Daily Observer (Banjul)
Hatab Fadera
2 November 2009
As the desire for food self-sufficiency continues to register progress countrywide,the Gambian leader, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, has revealed that his target is for The Gambia to export rice in the next two to three years.
The Gambian leader remarked that he is not thinking of the attainment of food self-sufficiency,saying that is not far fetch, rather the exportation of rice; thus expressing confidence that this is achievable soon if the weather pattern continues as it is.
President Jammeh, who doubles as the minister of Agriculture was speaking to reporters last Saturday evening at his Kanilai Bridge rice farm, where he boosted the efforts of hundreds of women harvesting the rice. He told reporters that the amount of rice locally grown this year would mean that The Gambia will consume less imported rice in 2010, thanks to his clarion call for the people to eat what they grow.
Appeal
The Gambian leader used the opportunity to make a personal appeal to the general public and even those across the border to render a helping hand in harvesting his farms, majority of which are already due for harvest. Harvesting on his farms for this year, he told reporters, will be tedious and larger compared to last year. "As we speak, even five thousand people coming to stay in Kanilai for one week cannot finish harvesting the farms," stated the president.
The Gambian leader added that governors who have people willing to render a helping hand on his farms should contact them so as to sort out transport logistics. He called for assistance on the numerous Kanilai farms as soon as possible, given the nature of the farms and the current state of the crops that are due for harvest. "We need a lot of people to harvest the farms," he pointed out.
Special varieties
The reporters were shown special varieties of rice grown on President Jammeh's farms. These include the less-than-40 days variety and a tall rice variety, both of which are on propagation and multiplication for large-scale cultivation in future farming seasons.
The less-than-40 days variety, according to the president is very brittle. "Once it is ripe and not harvested on time, it starts to fall down. We are trying to propagate this particular rice variety and multiply it because it is less than 40 days. This variety is faster than even corn. If you plant it together with the corn, you will harvest this rice variety may be three weeks before the corn," explained President Jammeh.
The president told reporters his wiliness to share this particular rice variety with other farmers in the country, noting that this is the reason why it is on multiplication to ensure its abundance. "But I know NARI (National Agriculture Research Institute) is also behind us for them to have this variety because nobody has this variety. So we will give it to NARI to multiply it, but we will also continue our seed multiplication, and by next year, we are going to share what we have with other farmers as well," stated the president.
The president then informed reporters that he got the tall rice variety - which is on its third year of cultivation on his farms - from Indonesia. "That time I was only allowed diplomatically not more than 30 kilos of the variety but I was able to get 60 kilos. So we started multiplying it and it is a very good variety," he explained.
Harvest for this year
The Gambian leader predicted a bumper harvest on his farms for this year's farming season. "Look at this small area and what it has yielded. This is less than 0.001 percent of my farms.
Countrywide I am expecting nothing less than 10,000 tons of rice," revealed President Jammeh. Meanwhile prior to the post harvest interview, President Jammeh on arrival at the farm did not hesitate to join hundreds of women harvesting rice on his farm, a move that did not only help to boost the moral of the women but greatly demonstrated his leadership concept of leading by example.
Considering the intense nature of farming on President Jammeh's Kanilai farms coupled with other impressive farming activities across the length and breath of the country, it is worthwhile mentioning the fact that the Gambian leader's objective of food self-sufficiency is not far from attainment, and that the country in the next few years will start exporting rice.
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