Agriculture Minister Promises to Take Farmer-centred Approach

By Fatou B. Cham

The Minister of Agriculture Demba Sabally has lamented the fact that for the past fifty years the Ministry of Agriculture has had a lot of projects on Agriculture, that yielded little. Therefore, he revealed, their new approach will be entirely farmer-centered – “Which means that whatever we do would be for the best interest of the farmers”.

Mr Sabally said this in his maiden Senior Management (SMT) Meeting recently held at the Ministry of Agriculture.

He went on: “We are highly dependent on imported products for feeding. It is high time that we started to feed ourselves”. He acknowledged the fact that our youthful population is migrating in numbers, coupled with challenges of climate change, and the degrading of lands. All of this, the agric minister noted, must be addressed to attain the goal of self-sufficiency.

The meeting delved into the activities of the Ministry; the achievements, and challenges that are hindering the implementation of its mandate.

Mr Sabally called for collective and concerted efforts towards the attainment of the mission of the Ministry to make The Gambia a hunger-free nation.