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Momodou
Denmark
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 Posted - 22 Oct 2009 : 19:36:04
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Hope for Farmers’ Poverty As Agricultural Reform Looms
By Saihou Jammeh
The Gambia is ranked 155th most-poverty-stricken-country, out of 177, and 91 percent poor are the farmers, statistics revealed by an official from the Ministry of Agriculture reveals, adding that if the trend is not reversed, the country would not meet the internationally-set Millennium Development Goal targets of reducing poverty by 2015.
Out of five hundred and fifty-eight thousand hectres of arable land available, the country is cultivating less than half. Even at that level, productivity is still very low. In addition, 53 percent of land that is cultivated is cereal while rice which is the country’s staple food is grown on less than 5 percent.
However, it is against this background that government has added another national policy document to the existing three in a bid to accelerate efforts towards attaining the set targets and the ultimate enhancement of the lives of the country’s hard-pressed people whose individual and collective efforts translate to the socio-economic development of the country, representing 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.
The Gambia National Agriculture Investment Programme, as it is called, is an 80 page document that set out government’s direction towards improving national agriculture sector and natural resources and it was tabled by the National Planning Commission at a two day stakeholders meeting convened with a view to sensitise all players in the field of Agriculture and Natural resources.
The National Agricultural Investment Programme as explained at the meeting has six components namely: development of agricultural chains and market promotion, improvement of water management, prevention and management of food crises and other disasters, improved management of the shared resources, sustainable farm management and institutional capacity building.
The director of Agric Business at the Ministry of Agriculture Mr. Bakary Sonko, giving a detailed explanation of the components said the improvement of the water management has four sub components – land development, mechanisation, irrigation and capacity building. The other component, i.e. management of shared resources, has to do with animal movements and disease control, as well as forestry resources.
Describing it as the biggest problem facing the sector, he said the market chains involve the transformation of farm produce from the farm to the consumers. He added that food chains would be developed to promote access to domestic, regional and international markets.
On the prevention of food crises and other natural disasters, Sonko pointed out that agriculture in the Gambia is based on rain-fed, which is both erratic and unreliable. Thus he said, it is important to develop mechanism that will anticipate the future. Under the sustainable farm management component, the capacity of farmers will be build in order to prevent the exploitation of soil resources.
And the final component which is institutional capacity building, he said it is for all those involved in the agricultural business to ensure the success of the programme. Before the development of the policy is finished, it goes to the president for approval, which involves restructuring the Agriculture Ministry by decentralizing its programmes. Each region will have a regional directorate that will conduct their business at their own level, assuring that they will be provided with funds to do so.
The budget allocated for this four year implementation programme is US $266Million, said Mr. Sonko. Out of this sum, US $106 Million is allocated for the development of agricultural chains and market promotion; US$68 Million for improvement of water management, US$40 Million for prevention and management of food crisis and other natural disasters; improved management of the other shared resources is US$ 50 Million; US$20 Million for farm management, while institutional capacity building for the implementation of the Regional Agricultural Investment Programme (RAIP) is US$40 M.
Source: The Daily News
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