Gambia: 'Gambia Not On Track to Achieve Food, Nutritional Security'

13 September 2022
The Point (Banjul)
By Ali Jaw

The United Nations Development Programme - The Gambia has disclosed that The Gambia is not on track to achieve food and nutritional security. The revelations were inscribed by the UN agency in its 2019-2021 Gambia report.

"Most of the rural population depends on crops and livestock for their livelihood. The sector witnessed a slight revival in 2018 and grew by 0.9% compared to the sharp contraction of -4.4% in 2017," the UN agency stated.

"However, due to erratic rainfall in the 2018-2019 cropping season, agricultural production declined by about 23%. The country is therefore not on track to achieve food and nutritional security."

"This is being further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and as a result, the government has provided food support to 84% of households. In addition, rural dwellers who are mainly subsistence farmers dependent on rain-fed agriculture will require significant support for the next cropping season."

"The Agricultural sector is projected to register a growth of 4.5 percent in 2021, a significant decline from the 11.7 percent recorded in 2020. This is due to late rains resulting to an estimated decline in all agricultural sub-components except for livestock which had an estimated growth rate of 4.2 percent in 2021," it highlighted.

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