The
Hon. Minister for Agriculture, Amie Fabureh, was recently in Rome, Italy to
attend the 43rd session of the Governing Council of the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD). The minister, accompanied by her permanent
secretary Momodou Mbye Jabang, briefed the organisation about the status of
agriculture in the country.
In
her statement at the session, the Hon. Minister Fabureh said The Gambia under
the leadership of President Adama Barrow has identified two key factors to
enhance the agriculture sector namely, the need to build climate change
resilience into all agricultural development initiatives and a clear and
pronounced desire to rebuild political and economic relations.
“There
is an on-going new process to sustainably manage land, water resources and
ecosystems, build the resilience of smallholders against climate change, push
towards mechanization of agriculture, and the emergence and transformation of
agri-food value chains for employment creation especially for youth and women,”
the Hon. minister told the IFAD Governing Council.
Minister
Fabureh pointed out that poverty in the Gambia is mostly concentrated in rural
areas largely characterised by fragile ecosystems. She said areas along the
River Gambia are endowed with natural resources but constantly degraded and
lack appropriate infrastructure and public services. These areas according to
the minister, are inhabited by food insecure communities, malnourished
children, women and young people that are mostly vulnerable to climate change.
She noted that these challenges are amplified by weak public institutions and
private service operators, high population growth, low agricultural
productivity and limited access to resources.
Giving
general overview of IFAD operation in The Gambia, Minister Fabureh stated that
the new Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP) (2019-2025) contains
six-year USD 80.0 million project financed through the IFAD 11 & 12 funding
cycles financing envelope and co-financing. She said the Resilience of
Organisations for Transformative Smallholder Agriculture Project (ROOTS) will
scale-up achievements by National Agricultural Land and Water Management
Development Project (NEMA), while building synergies with other partners’ work
geared towards increasing climate change resilience and value-chain development. The Hon. Minister further stated that the
approach would be based on: Consolidation of NEMA’s investments; sustained
investments and support to women organisation, youth producers and farmers’
organisations; supporting value chain interaction platforms to enable
Public-Private Producers’ Partnerships (4Ps); Increased access to financing for
agriculture value chain; mainstreaming environmental, climate, gender and
nutrition in the interventions.
IFAD
invests in rural people by empowering them to reduce poverty and increase food
security. It is estimated that IFAD has provided over US$22.4 billion in
grants. IFAD is an international financial institution and a UN specialised
agency based in Rome.
By
Momodou Kanteh, Information Officer MoA
