The
Gambia government through the Ministry of Agriculture has purchased D15, 545,
000.00 worth of rice seeds from four communities in Central River Region (CRR).
On Tuesday a four man team led by the director general of the National Seed
Secretariat, Morro Manga visited the four communities (Niani Sukuta,
Wellingara, Jahally and Madina Nfally) to ascertain that the seed growers have
received their monies and also to verify the seed stocks.
Seed
growers in all the four communities expressed their delight for the initiative
taken by the government of The Gambia through the Ministry of Agriculture to
buy their seeds.
Saikou
Barrow of Niani Sukuta Seed Growers Association said: “We the seed growers are
happy that the president of the Republic of The Gambia Adama Barrow and his
government has fulfilled their promise to buy our seeds. The monies accrued
from the sales of these rice seeds will go a long way in improving our lives
and livelihoods and that of our families.”
Samba
Manneh, president of Madina Nfally seed growers association called on seed
growers in the region to take seed production seriously, now that government is
ready to help seed growers they should make best use of this opportunity and
grow more rice seeds in the future.
The
director general of the National Seed Secretariat, Morro Manga said the seed
growers of those communities made a special appeal to President Adama Barrow
during his Meet the Peoples’ Tour for government to help buy their seed since
there was no ready market for the farmers. He said the president in turned
asked the minister of Agriculture, Amie Fabureh to endeavour through her
ministry to buy the seeds.
Mr.
Manga said until the establishment of the National Seed Secretariat in 2017,
The Gambia was relying on external seed sourcing within the sub region, simply
because there was no seed certification agency in the country. “All these 310.9
tonnes presented here today were all tested and certified by the NSS and they
can be sold even to other countries around the sub-region.”
Morro
Lamin Bah, head of Seed Quality Control and Certification Unit (SQCCU) of the
National Seed Secretariat, mentioned that four rice varieties were produced
from that activity such as; Sahel 134, FARO 44, WAB 105 and IET 31-37. He said
the activity was a tripartite arrangement among the National Seed Secretariat,
Nema/P2RS and the certified seed growers.
It
could be recalled that the minister for Agriculture Amie Fabureh promised to
wipe farmers’ tears; she vowed that the ministry under her watchful eyes will
ensure that the plight of farmers are addressed. With the outbreak of
coronavirus, it is expected that agricultural production will be affected
seriously in the coming rainy season. With this quantity of certified rice
seed, it will reduce the effect of coronavirus on seed availability for the
2020 cropping season.