Crr — The Organisation for the Development of Rural Community from Senegal, which is implementing the SAGE project together with ADWAC, on Friday paid a courtesy call on the governor of the Central River Region, Alhaji Ganyie Touray, to inform him about the activities of the SAGE project. Saikou Sonko, the land component manager of the SAGE project under ADWAC, led the group.

The delegates briefed the governor about their intention to produce a document encompassing the CRR south intervention areas and Patar, Kerewan and Diabugu on the Senegalese side of the border.

Alhaji Ganyie Touray, the governor of the region commended the project for complementing government's effort in the attainment of food security, indicating that this is part of government's development agenda of attaining food self-sufficiency, as enshrined in Vision 2020 and the PAGE programme, as policy guideline to attain sustainable socio-economic progress. He said such development projects are always welcomed in the region. The project's intervention area, he noted, is not only improving agriculture but also forest, land management and gender.

Governor Touray stressed that frequent bushfires destroy the forest and as well damage young trees. If bushfires are not brought under control, he added the menace would continue to destroy the forest. The governor assured the delegates that they will achieve their goals of reducing maternal mortality to an acceptable level come 2015, while commending the government of The Gambia through the leadership of President Jammeh and the Taiwanese government for their support to the health sector.

The land component manager of the SAGE project, Saikou Sonko, disclosed that the project has a life span of four years and that it is a cross border between Guinea Bissau, Senegal and The Gambia,funded by the Spanish Agency for International Development (AECID). Sonko went on to inform that the purpose of the project is to successfully manage agriculture along side environmental protection; that it is being implemented by ADWAC and a regional partnership, which includes three countries.