Mr. Jaiteh,
That rice is Gambia's staple food cannot be questioned, but I dare say that
it is less staple today than it was 25 - 30 years ago. The Food and
Nutritrion Unit of the Department of Agric. Services (DAS) in The Gambia,
has, for some years now, been engaged in the promotion of technologies on
alternative ways of preparing dishes using foodstuffs other than rice. Maize
/ millet Benachin was one of them and I can assure you that in some rural
communities, some of these technologies were ell received, particularly at
times when rice was difficult get. This, together with the traditional
"Cherres" and "laahs", gives millet an important place in Gambian diet and
nutrition.
I'm sure DAS and Dep, of Planning (DOP) will be able to give indicative
statistics of total cereal consumption, in general, and consumption of
individual cereals in the Gambia. Diversifying our cereal consumption is
something which should be taken seriously in The Gambia.
Dr. Alhaji S: Jeng
Kroer Søndre
1430 Ås
Norway
+47 64 97 3490
----- Original Message -----
From: "Malanding Jaiteh" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 8:54 PM
Subject: Where lies the bread- rice or millet?
> Reading through the 2003 budget, the following statistics caught my
> attention.
>
> Mr. Jatta said:
> "Cereal production increased from 175,000 metric tons in 2000/2001 to
> 187,000 metric tons in 2001/2002, an increase in 6.9%. Early millet
> production of 89,000 metric tons represent 52% of the overall cereal
> production. However, the production of rice (the main staple food of the
> country) declined from 34,000 metric tons in 2000/2001 to 19,000 metric
tons
> in 2001/2002, a decline of about 44%. This is due to reductions in both
> upland and swamp rice production."
>
> I am curious to know how much the government spends on millet as a crop
> compared to rice and peanuts? This is in the form of foreign exchange,
> loans, projects and subsidies (traders and farmers). Also of interest to
me
> is what proportion of the country's cereal consumption is rice and millet?
>
> While I wait for our agric experts to help answer the above questions, I
> would dare say that the government do not seem to get the role of millet
in
> Gambia's economic wellbeing. I believe rice is over-rated as our staple
> food. Infact our efforts to achieve food security through increased
> home-grown production my be totally misplaced. First environmental
> conditions in the Gambia do not favor rice as much as many of us believe.
> Our location in the Sahel makes rain-fed rice production extremely
> difficult. The topography and geology (flat terrain, and very old, very
poor
> sandy soils makes irrigation a very expensive venture.
>
> I hope the government understand that it is not by some fluke that millet
> production managed to register 6.9% in a year the government declared
> drought disaster and famine warning? The environmental hardiness of millet
> and our farmers' knowledge about its cultivation without the extra input
> makes it all the more successful. The fact is you can grow millet without
> the extra attention (weeding) demanded by groundnuts and the extra
moisture
> (needed by rice).
>
> The only BUT about millet is processing. Just like they went for growing
> millet because of the environment and economics, farmers chose rice when
it
> comes to consumption because of the economics of processing. The
> government's job should be to facilitate millet processing and marketing.
> The government needs to support those individuals who want to start their
> processing and marketing trade. In addition to traditional foods from
millet
> we must encourage new innovations. The Government must go out of its way
to
> support individuals with bright ideas on what to make from millet. Loan
> guarantees and tax incentives would go a long way to address that. Another
> area is to negotiate with Senegal to enable our traders to access the rest
> of the sub-region. This is perhaps the most important. As we have seen
with
> trade with outside world, Gambians can compete successfully when they get
> equal access. This cannot be guaranteed if there is no comprehensive
policy
> with Senegal with regard to movement of people and goods.
>
> Malanding Jaiteh
>
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