Jankey Ceesay was speaking on Saturday in Gunjur in the North Bank Region to showcase Gunjur women’s efforts at bringing about food security and nutrition development.
She said the women are very committed to attaining food self-sufficiency, citing their participation in rice production as a means of contributing to the national food self-sufficiency agenda.
She hailed the women of Gunjur for their support and cooperation in accelerating growth and development in food self-sufficiency.
She also used the opportunity to appeal to the authorities and philanthropists to support them with rice and coos, milling machines and groundnut paste processing machines, for them to improve on timely food preparation and boost income capacity of women.
She said lack of labour-saving devices for women over the years resulted in a long distance travel of 10 kilometers away, to mill rice and process groundnut paste.
The women leader assured philanthropists and institutions of their willingness to cooperate in addressing the daunting challenges women encounter in food preparation.
Kawsu Barrow, chairperson of Gunjur Village Development Committee, applauded women for their support and cooperation in mobilizing D23,100 to provide 18 bundles of wire to strengthen the fence of Gunjur women’s garden to enhance vegetable production and productivity.
He lauded the women for their solidarity in complementing VDC in improving lives and livelihood.
The VDC chairperson also thanked President Yahya Jammeh for providing fertilizer to farmers at affordable prices.
The VDC chairperson calls on the authorities and philanthropists to support them with a community tractor to enhance timely participation and involvement in food production.
He added that the community tractor would support them to increase food production and diversification on a large scale to improve food self-sufficiency.
Mai Drammeh and Mai Touray of Gunjur women kafo echoed similar sentiments, saying safeguarding the garden from stray animals would increase nutritional supplementation.
The women representatives also expressed concern about the constraints they are experiencing in marketing their products.