Gambia needs US$300M to attain rice self-sufficiency

Responding to questions during the Friday night Mansa Kunda Ministerial Town Hall meeting held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Conference Centre in Bijilo, the Agric minister said there have been three main factors hindering the attainment of rice self-sufficiency.

According to the minister, these include the cost, explaining that rice production is not an easy task as it would require at least US$12,000 to US$15,000 for every hectare.

“If the country must feed itself, we must prepare 20,000 hectares of land; and for us to do that, we need US$300 million in our coffers to prepare the 20,000 hectares. In the absence of the 20,000 hectares of land we cannot produce enough rice to feed ourselves,” he explained.

The Agric minister acknowledged that as a challenge recognised by the government, adding that other factors that have impeded rice production in the country is the lack of involvement of the private sector.

“Our Gambian people who are wealthy have always invested in other sectors whilst viewing agriculture as risky environment,” he said, adding that the lack of involvement of the private sector investment in agriculture has been an impediment to rice self-sufficiency.”

The other factors are the lack of youth involvement into agricultural production and lack of mechanisation, he said, adding these have been the main reasons hindering country’s aim to attain rice self-sufficiency for decades.

He revealed that the Ministry of Agriculture has started the process of preparing to get the 20,000 hectares, citing that several projects including ROOTS and Rice Value Chain have 1000s of hectares of land which need to be prepared.