Stakeholders from various departmental units, particularly from the Ministry of Agriculture and its line departments, last Thursday converged at the ITC conference room in Kerr Serign to validate the ITC Research and Development Project Result Dissemination.
The exercise was conducted for stakeholders to discuss the project findings and recommendations made by the project consultants.
“The general objective of this project is to contribute to the achievement of in-situ conservation of ERL species for increased productivity to strengthen food security and alleviate poverty,” he said.
The project validation focused on the effect of climate factor on Glossina SPP and Trypanosomosis.
Speaking at the forum, the PROGEBE national coordinator, Dr. Famara Sanyang, thanked the participants at the forum.
The forum discussed very important issues of national development, he said.
In his statement on the occasion, the regional PROGEBE coordinator, Dr Abdel Kader Bensada, said the forum presented an opportunity for stakeholders to contribute immensely towards the implementation of the project by critically looking at the document.
The objective was to establish the 2011 tsetse density, tsetse challenge, and cattle trypanosomosis prevalence in Kiang West and Niamina East districts, to assess the effect of climate change during the past three decades on Tsetse Trypananosomosis burden.
In a PowerPoint presentation of the project’s findings, Dr Arss Secka said the finding covered a fifteen-month period from November 2010 to January2012.
The research was funded by the AfDB through the PROGEBE-Gambia and implemented by ITC, he said, while explaining the methodology, results, challenges, and recommendations on the project.
In his official opening statement, the deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Sheriffo Bojang, thanked the consultant for “a wonderful job”.
He challenged the participants to scrutinize the documents, “which is very important as far as Agriculture development is concerned”.
He then used the occasion to thank the funding agency and called for a speedy implementation of project within its limited resource.