Mr Baboucarr Njie, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Agriculture, has said that the importance of agricultural innovation platform for technology adaptation is key determinant to sustainable and increased agricultural production.
PS Njie made the remarks at a two-day orientation on maize value chain actors and inception of component 1 and 2 (DONATA and RAILS of PSTAD) project held at Baobab Hotel on Tuesday, 22 March 2011.
According to him, food security is linked to maize value chain technology up and out scaling.
He noted that in the last two or three decades ,agricultural productivity in
He said the decline in productivity and production is due to a multiple of constraints such as poor soil fertility, poor cultural practices, inefficient natural resources utilisation and restriction and inefficient marketing outlets among others. “To crown it all, this is linked to technology adaptation along the commodity value chain,” he said.
Ansumana Jarjue, scientific coordinator, said: “This programme is a pilot programme intended to begin in North Bank Region.”
He added: “This is all geared towards achieving food self sufficiency in the country, thus reduce poverty as enshrined in the poverty reduction strategy paper 11.”
He noted that come next year the project will extend to other regions across the country.
The programme was funded by Commission Innovation Technology Platform Association. The project has five clusters, namely Mamuda, Pakau Njogu, Fass Chaho, Kerr Jarga and Kerr Amadou that are in the pilot project for 2011.
The objectives are to increase productivity of farmers and marketing systems to improve their livelihood.
Saikou Sanyang, the NBR agricultural Coordinator, spoke at length on the importance of the pilot project.
He said that the people of his region are ready to receive the project with anxiety. He went further to say they are aware of the potentials of maize value chain, from production to consumption.
“It is a collective role to play by all actors in the process and in that way we will be able to attain food security,” he said.
