The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation has on Wednesday 31st of July 2013, opened a two-day inception workshop at the Ocean Bay Hotel & Resort for the MDG 1c Initiative "Improving Food Security through Crop Production Intensification and School Feeding Program in The Gambia" which was formally launched on Tuesday 11th June 2013 at Pakaliba in the Lower River Region.

According to the Organisers, this Initiative is part of the overall development project which seeks to establish sustainable commercialized agriculture that will facilitate the foundation of a Nationally Owned Home-Grown School Feeding Programme.

They said the project is funded by the European Commission (EU) to support the Government of The Gambia to accelerate progress towards achieving the MDG 1c which is to reduce by half, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger'.

According to the Organisers, the inception workshop is as a result of one of the components of the project "Production enhancement and marketing" which is implemented by FAO that seeks to assist smallholder farmers and small scale food processors to overcome production constraints and add value through improved production , processing and marketing techniques.

In delivering her statement at the opening of the inception workshop, Ms. Agnes GUILLAUD, Chargee d'Affaires of the European Union to the Republic of The Gambia asserted that the MDGs are eight international development goals officially established following the UN Millennium Summit in 2000 and that all 189 UN member states agreed to achieve these goals by the year 2015, which is now less than two years away. According to her, already in September 2010, ten years after the initial UN Summit, a follow up UN conference identified that the progress towards reaching the goals had been uneven and that some countries had achieved many of the goals, whilst others were not on track to realize any.

At the 2010 UN conference she stated, the European Commission announced the establishment of a 1 billion Euro fund, called the MDG Initiative, to help countries like the Gambia which were falling behind in attempts to achieve their MDGs and that earlier this year, the EU signed a financing agreement with the Government of the Gambia for a 7.6 million Euro (approximately 380 million Dalasi) for an MDG Initiative project to 'improve food security through crop production intensification and a school feeding programme.

Ms. Agnes GUILLAUD noted that implementation of the project component aimed at "improving food security through crop production intensification" is officially launched now and that activities under the second component "school feeding programme" have already started in September last year and would involve both the FAO and WFP as implementing partners, together with Government administrations.

According to the Gambia National Agricultural Investment Programme (GNAIP) she said, agriculture should have the potential to contribute significantly to the attainment of the MDGs in the Gambia, but the current level of productivity of the sector is well below the growth required to meet food security and poverty reduction. The Gambia she said, has set a target of 6% annual growth in agricultural production in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and that latest results show that The Gambia will most probably fail to meet its targets by 2015 due to the non availability of improved seeds, high post- harvest losses, erratic and inadequate rainfall and very limited use of available water for irrigation.

Furthermore she said, in 2011, the Global Hunger Index, published by the International Food Policy Research Institute, identified that Gambia's population is suffering from "serious" levels of hunger and that household food insecurity has been accompanied by an intensification of acute and chronic malnutrition, particularly affecting under-5 children and that the under-5 mortality rate in The Gambia is almost doubled that of the world average as identified by UNICEF in 2009. Dr Babagana Ahmadu, FAO Country Representative in the Gambia asserted that FAO's role in the MDG ic project is in line with its mandate which is to raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, and better the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy and that in the wake of the 1996 World Food Summit, FAO adopted a Strategic Framework, the first goal of which is to "ensure access of all people at all times to sufficient, nutritionally adequate and safe food ensuring that the number of undernourished people is reduced by half by no later than 2015."

In the same vein he said, World leaders, Heads of States and Governments adopted a similar goal at the Millennium Summit in 2000 as Target 2 of the 1st Millennium Development Goal:"Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger" and to this end, FAO adopted a corporate strategy on Reducing food insecurity and rural poverty. Dr Babgana noted that in The Gambia, Food insecurity and poverty have a marked geographic dimension in the country and that there is a higher proportion of poor, food insecure or vulnerable population found in several districts of CRR (North and South), LRR, NBR and URR.

Furthermore he said, Poor households have limited access to food because domestic productivity is constrained by highly seasonal and mostly rain-fed subsistence agriculture and also because of high food prices. FAO Boss asserted that the FAOSTAT revealed in 2011, that rice (which is the main staple food) and maize yields in The Gambia are low and lagging behind West Africa's average performance, and national cereal production can cover only 60 percent of annual consumption.

In order to address some of these challenges and constraints, Dr Babagana said, the MDG 1c project was formulated with the aim of enhancing the productivity of food systems and tackle both the supply side (sources of micronutrients more widely available) and the demand side (increase in household incomes) of hunger and that the project will support the implementation of the Gambia National Agriculture Investment Plan or GNAIP (2011-2015), which is also in line with the MDGs, with the aim of attaining the objectives of the framework of the AU-NEPAD's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the PAGE.

In her opening statement, the Permanent Secrtary Ministry of Agriculture Madam Ada Gaye asserted that with few years to the target year, signals show that many countries are failing to achieve some critical MDGs, among which is MDG 1 which is eradicating hunger and extreme poverty. However she said, although the Government of The Gambia is committed to achieving the MDGs, more particularly with regards to the MDG-lc target, about 20 percent of infants have low birth weights and 20.3 percent of children under-5 are underweight, against a 10.4 percent objective for 2015 and that household food insecurity has exacerbated the prevalence of acute and chronic malnutrition which is particularly affecting under-5 children. PS Gaye noted according to UNICEF study of 2009, under-5 mortality rate is 103 per 1,000 live births compared to the world average of 60 and that she said, according to the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS) conducted in 2010, 9.5 percent of children under-5 are wasted i.e too thin for their height and 23.4 percent of them are stunted too short for their age. Madam Gaye pointed out that the MDG Initiative is a European Union response to these realities and aims to help build the capacity of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to accelerate the realization of some critical MDGs and that following the submission of a proposal by Government of The Gambia in partnership with the FAO and WFP, the two UN agencies that were identified to implement the project, the EU approved the sum of €7.6 Million for the MDG Initiative Project on "Improving Food Security through Crop Production Intensification and School Feeding Programme".

"I have to register on behalf the Government of The Gambia under the leadership of His Excellency The President of The Republic of The Gambia, Sheikh Professor Alhagi Dr Yaya A. J. J. Jammeh, our sincere appreciation of this intervention being supported by the European Union and the United Nations Systems" she stated.

She said the realisation of the first specific objective of production enhancement will be under the responsibility of the FAO in collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture and will focus on rice, maize, millet and major horticultural crops in the targeted areas and that the targeted beneficiaries for this component of the project comprise smallholder farmers in selected districts as they constitute the bedrock of The Gambia's agriculture, and by linking them to markets, it is expected that production and productivity will be boosted.

PS Gaye asserted that the project will enhance the ability of participating households to increase the productivity of their farm with the potentials of producing in excess of their consumption requirements and that this initiative is in line with the Gambia development blue prints namely; the PAGE and the Gambia National Agriculture Investment Programme (GNAIP) and that it is also in line with Pillar 3 of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) and enhancement of food supply and reduction of hunger she said.

She pointed out that the second component is a school feeding programme under the responsibility of the World Food Programme in collaboration with Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and that it aims to supply nutritious food to school children and serve as a catalyst and an incentive to farmers targeted by the first component to produce large quantities to be sold directly to the school feeding programme.