Food Self Sufficiency: An Achievable Vision But only If…
Monday, August 13, 2012
Hopes are that The Gambia can feed herself. At the national level this
vision is embeded in the PAGE, as well as Vision 2020.  However, food self
sufficiency will remain a far-away aspiration, if the right environment and
opportunities are not created. The arable land is available. Besides, there
is enough fresh water, as the River Gambia can give us the needed supply of
fresh water for our farms. In addition, there is a farming population that
is willing and ready to feed the country.

But alas, The Gambia relies too much on rainfall, which is in nature, both
unreliable and erratic, especially in this age of hard-to-predict
variations in the whether. Alternatively, there is abundance of underground
water that can give us an year-round bumper harvest,but only if all
possibilities are explored. But no! For four over decades now, the country
still depends on rainfall. This is a disgrace!
The governments come and go and they keep repeating the same old mistakes.
How many projects that were geared towards self-sufficiency in food have
failed? The Jahally-Pacharr project is one very important project that
could have saved us from this current state of national hunger, but it
failed. Although the previous government is responsible for the failure of
such an important project, nonetheless. the current government has done
nothing to revive it. Why? The answer could be anyone’s guess.
Traveling from Banjul to Perai village in the Tumana district, and at some
point crossing over to the Wuli, Sami and the Niani areas, there is ample
evidence that the Gambia is able to grow enough to feed herself. But again,
there is a reminder that this would be difficult, if not in fact
impossible, if the government refuses to give the needed support to
farmers.
Currently, hundreds of farmers are out there in the fields. All they lack
is money to buy themselves fertilizers to enrich their farmlands that have
lost their fertility. Unless the government comes with a tangible project,
the Gambia will remain in this handout situation, in which foreign
governments and NGOs would be giving us food handouts.

For instance, the farmers in the Niaminas, like the rest of the country,
have so far got enough rains to grow their crops  with a very high
probability of having a very high yield this year. Many upland crop fields
like groundnut, nerica, millet and sorghum are put under cultivation by
both the young and the old, men and women. Some of them, such as Fatoumatta
Kamara of Niamina Touba Demba are students, who go to school, but spend
much of their time on the rice fields.

What the farmers need at this time is a government that is willing to make
fertilizer affordable and accessible to the farming community on time.
These are people who are just emerging from crop failures, and therefore do
not have seeds for the current farming seasons. They do not only lack
seeds, but they also do not have food to keep them going. Had it not been
the humanitarian assistance, our farming community would not have any
stamina to be on the farms. Quite a good number of the farmers on both
sides of the river complain of not getting fertilizer on time and that in
some cases, they could buy it as they are thinking of what to eat, rather
than buying fertilizer at such a high price.

What the government can do to help Gambia feed herself is to adequately
plan ahead of the planting season, and that planning should be
participatory. In the sense, those farmers and other stakeholders including
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should be involved.
Fertilizer, seed-nuts and other farm inputs should be within the means of
the farmers, otherwise the provision of such farm inputs will serve no good
impact. The Daily News had just concluded a country-wide tour, taking it to
several parts of the country, where some farmers spoke about their
constraints. What has emerged prominent in the complaints of the farmers,
is the lack of fertilizer. Not that is not available in the market, but it
is too expensive for them to buy.


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