The presentation held in Sapu in the Central River Region was formally done by Tong Zhan, the Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in The Gambia.
The occasion brought together officials of the Embassy and the ministry who witnessed the presentation of various varieties of rice which include Sahel 134, Sahel 177, Y-manno, Orylux 6 and IR841.
Speaking on behalf of the Chinese Embassy, Counsellor Tong Zhang revealed that the occasion marked the outcome of the second phase of the China-Aid Agricultural Technology project since 2019.
He recalled that after 6 years of hard work by Mr Jacky Huang and his team, he noted that the outcome is encouraging at the government level, which has also served the purpose of their agreement and project for the agriculture sector.
This outcome, he added, is a small portion of the outcomes for the past six years, adding that the project has conducted several training programs both local and at government level. He recalled that in 1975, The Gambia and the People’s Republic of China had a diplomatic relationship.
On the outcome of the FOCAC summit, which was held in Beijing last September, Counselor Tong said that this year the most significant job for his embassy is to implement the outcome of the consensus of the two Presidents during the FOCAC summit.
“Agriculture is one of the priorities, and I think this year we have so many responsibilities to work on,” he said.
Alhagie Nyangado, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, thanked the Chinese Embassy and the project Country manager for the gesture, assuring that the seeds would be put into good use.
PS Nyangado further highlighted the need for land development, saying if the land is well developed, it would ensure effective rice cultivation, while he appealed to the Chinese embassy to also intervene in the area of inland development in their next level of cooperation.
Jacky Huang, Country manager for China-Aid Agriculture Technology Cooperation Project Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture Co. Ltd, revealed that so far they had successfully trained around 2300 individual farmers, students, teachers and technicians in the country.
He further revealed that they had also established a demonstration garden at the Jambangjelly mix-farm centre where they have about 6000 cm2 greenhouse. He added they are trying to identify more farmers for more community gardening around the West Coast Region.
Speakers included Abdoulie Touray, project coordinator at Central project Coordination Unit (CPCU) at the Ministry of Agriculture.
