The objective was to discuss the opportunities available at the Roots project to ensure that the small medium enterprises have access to this matching grant at Roots project.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the CEO of GCCI, Sarata Conateh, expressed delight and appreciation over the large turnout of participants from various financial service providers.
She said this shows their commitment and dedication towards the development "of our agricultural sector in this country." She also challenged the participants to make the forum very interactive and educational.
For his part, Lamin S. Darboe, the senior climate smart agriculture office at the Roots Project, said the session was very important to the Roots Project "as you may be aware, the Roots Project is a 6-year project under the Ministry of Agriculture which is here to support production and marketing of two very important value change commodities in The Gambia."
"The rice and vegetable production is an area where the project will provide a lot of support to our small holder farmers in terms of production and productivity of the rice and vegetables in the rural communities."
"The project will also go further to ensure that there is a market for whatever our small holder farmers are producing," he said, adding that was why the project is also designed as a value chain project where there are opportunities along the value chain from the producer’s level to other actors within the value chain like the processors and the transporters.
