Agriculture in Gambia
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GAMBIA, 2015/08/18
Over 2000 volunteers of the seven districts in the Upper River Region, mainly women and security officers, on Thursday descended on the President's rice field in Sotuma-Samba of the Jimara District of URR.
The volunteers expressed optimistic that the region will be crucial in making Vision 2016 initiative reality, taken into account that the people are committed towards ending decades-long importation of rice.
Speaking to the Daily Observer on the sidelines of the weeding activity, the governor of the region, Alhaji Omar Sompo Ceesay said Vision 2016 is fundamental to the socio-economic development of the country. He commended the leadership for the bold initiative, adding that next all, our development prospects rest, for the majority part, on the hands of our own people. He said the agriculture sector is really improving and that if Gambians continue to hold on to the food-sufficiency initiative the vision will be completed.
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BENIN, 2015/07/23
Fears are growing that without timely intervention to stem outbreaks of the highly virulent avian flu virus H5N1 across West Africa, further spread across the region and beyond is inevitable, FAO said today.
To this end, the agency is calling for $20 million for prevention and response activities.
The call follows outbreaks of the virus in poultry farms, markets and family holdings in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.
The outbreak comes as nations across West Africa are still recovering from, and in some cases still battling, Ebola. Avian flu could trigger a mass die-off of chicken – a nutritious and inexpensive source of food for a lot of people– with detrimental impacts on diets and on the economy of the region, exacerbating an by presently difficult situation.
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GAMBIA, 2015/06/06
The Initial Lady, Her Excellency Madam Zineb Yahya Jammeh has assured that The Gambia Government will continue to support women to increase subsistence crop yields to produce surplus for sale through the increased provision of production inputs, implements, labour saving devises, and post-harvest processing to avoid losses.
She added that they will as well support women in land development for increased rice production, promote the NERICA seed multiplication project and rehabilitation of vegetable gardens, supporting the establishment of food preservation, processing, storage and distribution inclunding improve divisional transportation networks for wider market access.
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GAMBIA, 2014/05/06
The president of the Republic Saturday continued his nationwide tour with a strong call for Gambian farmers to engage in large-scale agricultural production so that the country can move from predominantly subsistence farming to commercial farming, in line with the objectives of his government for the attainment of food security and export of the surplus in the shortest possible time.
Speaking at a conference held in Jambanjelly, Kombo South, WCR as part of his "Vision 2016 Rice Self-sufficiency Tour", President Jammeh stressed that the idea of subsistence farming - a system where farmers cultivate crop for only family consumption - should presently end. "It's about time commercial agriculture began. The plans we have presently is to bring agro-processing where mango and a lot of others will be processed and will be priced by us," he disclosed.
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GAMBIA, 2014/02/21
Jammeh reiterates plan to ban importation of basic foods - President Yahya Jammeh has said he is “determined to end the importation of basic food items by 2016 without fail.”
“Our traditional Gambian dishes are being restored by unhealthy and for most Muslims, haram junk food, being imported into this country,” Jammeh said Monday, on the eve of Gambia’s 49th Independence Anniversary Tuesday. 'This dangerous trend must end.”
In June 2013, President Jammeh announced that his government would ban the importation of rice into the country by 2016.
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GAMBIA, 2013/08/22
The Bakoteh Fish Market and Ice Plant has generated a total sum of D1.8M from the daily collection of duties from the vendors since its operations officially began in March, its manager has disclosed to the Daily Observer.
Speaking Monday during an exclusive interview with this reporter at his Bakoteh office, Duwa Jatta disclosed that out of the said sum of money, they have decided to transfer D1M into a fixed deposit account for a period of one year with a view to yielding interest.
The Bakoteh Fish Market and Ice Plant in Kanifing Municipality is a project financed by the Gambia government and the African Development Bank (AfDB) at the tune of US$3.3M.
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GAMBIA, 2013/05/12
In its quest to revitalise the production of cotton, one of the country's cash crops, the government has provided an amount of D2.6M for the provision of input for farmers in this domain ahead of the upcoming season, the minister of Agriculture has disclosed.
Solomon Owens made the disclosure Monday at the Governor's Bantaba in the Upper River Region (URR) while making delivery of farm inputs such as MPK fertilizer, and pesticides for cotton production.
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BOTSWANA, 2013/04/02
Africa frequently experiences food shortages, although its 900 million farmers could feed the continent, inclunding supplying other parts of the world. But for this to happen they need the support of politicians.
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GAMBIA, 2012/12/26
The International Fund for Agricultural Improvment(IFAD) will provide a US$20.28 million grant to The Gambia to help improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers, with a particular attention to rural women and youths in the country.
The financing agreement for the National Agriculture Land and Water Management Development Project was signed today by Abdou Kolley, minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, and Kanayo F. Nwanze, president of IFAD.
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GAMBIA, 2012/10/13
