Fafading S. Fatajo, who was speaking in a recent exclusive interview with The Point, acknowledged that there are many ways to increase production, citing some basic necessary approach.
“Our potential in the country is 1 to 3.5 metric per hectare on the rain perimeter and under irrigation it goes up to 7 some say 9 meters per hectare.” he said.
Fatajo indicated that the project went through a bidding process that follows the protocols to procure one tractor and two power tillers for National Seeds Sectarians (NSS).
“NSS is challenged when it comes to timely provision of labor and in collaboration they seek assistance from projects within the ministry of agriculture and that why RRVCDP procured a tractor and two power tillers which will be used for their satisfactory production so that the farmers all over the country can have quality seeds on time.”
He said that it is not business as usual when ‘we use to have rain up to January and farmers will be asked to put their groundnut on a rest platform for irrigation to reduce damping and moisture content’.
This, he said, is no longer the case now due to erratic rainfall pattern, while the distribution is questionable.
“So therefore we have to go for Climate Agriculture Crops (CAC) that are highly productive resistant to heat and drought and compete very well with weed, insects and pest, and cultivars or varieties that will reduce chattering and post-harvest lost because Gambia is one of the countries where post-harvest lost issued 25 to 35 percent of the production which is very high and can reduce our production that gets into our cooking pots and to the farmers income.”
