NACOFAG
Youth Wing officials recently returned home after attending a five-day
sub-regional meeting at the farmer’s university in Senegal.
The
meeting kicked off from 5 to 9 January 2017, and brought together producers
from 14 West African countries affiliated to ROPPA.
ROPPA
is a Sub Regional Network of Producers in West Africa, in which The Gambia is
represented by NACOFAG.
As
part of ROPPA’s mandate in building the capacities of its members, the Farmers’
University started in 2012, with the objective of bringing farmers from the
member countries to learn and share knowledge and experience in the various
fields of agriculture; alliance and partnership building at the national and
regional level, policy advocacy and lobbying, among others.
The
topic for this year’s session was ‘farmers’ training on the current stakes of
agricultural development’.
Five
delegates from The Gambia attended this year’s session namely, Musa F. Sowe –
President of NACOFAG, Bakoto Jobe Mboge – President of NACOFAG Women’s College,
Ebrima Camara – Secretary of NACOFAG Youth College, Amadou Taal – Capacity
development trainer for NACOFAG, and Lamin Fayinkeh from NACOFAG.
The
recommendations drawn from this year’s session centered mainly on committing
national governments to develop policies and programmes in consultation with
the farmers; increase investment in agriculture; and secure land for women in
order to increase production and improve the market value chain for
agricultural products.
In
this regard, for the Farmers’ University, the profiling process has been
engaged and pegged to a certain projects.
Indeed, in April 2016 , a working group met in
Thies, Senegal, in order to review the comprehensive project (Concept Note) and
make suggestions, formulate proposals both on the overall project (or Concept
Note) and the constitutional device and educational approach.
President
of NACOFAG Youth Winger Musa Sowe, Ebrima Camara, Secretary General, Muhammed
Fayinkeh, Bakoto Jobe and Amadou Taal represented The Gambia at the meeting.
It
would be recalled that the sixth convention was held in Niamey, Niger, in 2014
which recognized unanimously their relevance, and ROPPA decided that those
projects are reviewed for a bigger ownership, and ultimately for their
anchoring within the network.
