On 21 September 2013 several UTG students, answering to the clarion call
of President Yahya Jammeh, descended on the Faraba campus to weed the blooming
groundnut farm, which culminated into the cultivation of over 20 hectares of
groundnut.
The students, accompanied by some members of the university administration and faculty, arrived in the morning, and did not waste time to put their hoes to use.
Addressing the students, Jenung Manneh, the University Secretary, who was tasked by the Vice Chancellor to coordinate the university’s farming activities, said he was very appreciative of the efforts of the students who attended the exercise.
“If not for anything else, by coming here and spending the whole day together in this informal setting (students and staff), we are now more familiar with each other than before. On behalf of the VC and the DVC, I also commend the UTG staff who have left all their personal engagements and came to take part in this exercise,” he said.
Mr Manneh expressed hope to see more of these contributions from the student community, more of whom he also expected to see next time around.
For his part, Yankuba Mamburay, Senior University Relations Officer, expressed the pride of the administration of the students who took their time to answer to the call.
“Farming is what sustains us and we should be ready to grow what we eat,” he said. “This farm is an opportunity for the students to learn this very important activity. Imagine having one quarter of the student population converging on this farm? We would have had more than one thousand people, and seeing the kind of work we have done here today, we would have finished weeding the entire farm today.”
UTG Students Union president Yaya W.K. Marong thanked also the participants. He expressed gratitude to his Welfare Ministry for ensuring that people ate at the farm.
He urged the students to be more proactive when it comes to participating in extracurricular activities, especially farming.
He also expressed hope that next time around students would come out in large numbers.