NACOFAG convenes stakeholder forum on land tenure system

The seminar attracted thirty participants from farmer organizations, government representatives, local authorities, women, and young people among other stakeholders.

 The forum seeks to discuss and bring to the fore issues relating to land tenure policy in an interactive debate to collect opinion to see if land law or the policy is better to sensitise among women and young people.

At the opening ceremony, Mr Musa Sowe, president of NACOFAG said his organisation as a network of farmer organizations which comprises, livestock, fisheries, forests and food agro-food processors yearned to come out at the end of the seminar with a strong recommendation to ensure that women and young people are taken into account in land legislation and for policy especially with regards to access and control owning/being secure on land in the basics as other community members.

Mr Sowe spoke extensively about the significance of women owning lands, saying women have been marginalised for decades on land ownership.

The seminar, he added, is one way of addressing those issues of land tenure system in the country, further acknowledging the role of women and young people in any society’s development.

He thus called for women to be given priority to take ownership of land in the community.

“This is an ECOWAS program covering five different countries which the Gambia is not an exception. We are trying to use FAO voluntary guidelines, access to land, different tenure rights, traditional norms and values and how they affect us. We cannot talk about food security or sovereignty without access to land which is the primary factor.”

He said what led NACOFAG to organise this platform was to better bring all the actors including the local authorities and women to seek for opinion.

Other speakers included Musa Suso, deputy governor WCR, Kaddy Bojang, Regional Agriculture Director, among others, who all thanked NACOFAG for organising such as a forum.