The maiden meeting held on Wednesday, 11th May 2022, was centered on the activities of the Ministry, achievements, and challenges that are hindering the smooth implementation of the mandate of the Ministry.
Addressing the gathering, Hassan Jallow, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, welcomed the newly appointed Minister and the SMT during the meeting and opened the floor for discussions and presentations that were to be made.
Dr. Sabally speaking during the opening of the meeting called for team work, noting that he does not intend to work in isolation nor does he intend to get other people also to work in isolation while further imploring everyone to join hands and work together as a team in order to promote their agenda to achieve a common goal.
“Being the minister of Agriculture to me is a privilege and also a responsibility since our mission as a Ministry is to make The Gambia a hunger-free nation which is not an easy task given all the challenges that we are facing,” he revealed.
“Today our mission is a household name”, Hon Sabally expressed while adding that the population is highly dependent on imported products for feeding and it is high time we started to feed ourselves even with the fact that our youthful population is migrating, coupled with challenges like climate change, and the degrading of our lands, however, our mission must still be accomplished.
“My focus is going to be farmer-centered because throughout the past fifty (50) years the Ministry of Agriculture has had a lot of information and projects on Agriculture, henceforth we will be having a farmer-centered mindset which means that whatever we do would be for the best interest of the farmers.
He acknowledged the various presentations made leveraging on the importance of teamwork and said work has commenced and they must work together in order to avoid duplication of efforts.
