Africa-Press – Gambia. Farmers participating in The Gambia’s school feeding programme have hailed World Food Programme (WFP) for awarding supply contracts that enable local producers to provide home-grown food to schools.
They described the initiative as a significant boost to agricultural production and rural livelihoods.
Alhaji Modou Touray, a prominent farmer and supplier under the Gambia National Farmers Aggregation Cooperative Union, said the involvement of local farmers in supplying produce to the school feeding programme represented a major encouragement for smallholder producers.
Speaking to The Voice in Maka Farafeni, Upper Badibou district of the North Bank Region, Touray highlighted the positive impact of procurement and distribution of locally produced food items to Lower Basic and Madarasa schools across the region and beyond.
According to him, the selection of farmer agents was spearheaded by the Gambia Agriculture and Food Security Project (GASFP), which supported farmers nationwide with improved climate-smart seeds and capacity-building initiatives aimed at boosting productivity.
He notes that the initiative has significantly empowered smallholder farmers by improving access to markets for crops such as cereals, maize, groundnuts and cowpeas, while also promoting local consumption and enhancing the nutritional intake of schoolchildren.
Touray also praised WFP for providing tricycles to agents across the country to facilitate the timely transportation of farm produce to schools, describing the arrangement as an opportunity to reduce post-harvest losses and expand large-scale production.
He disclosed that he recently purchased one tonne of cleaned groundnuts from women farmers at the weekly Farafenni market (locally known as “lumo”) for supply to schools. He added that WFP currently works with four agents in the North Bank Region, helping ensure that farmers benefit from stable market opportunities.
Touray called on the Gambian government to replicate the WFP model by sourcing food supplies from local farmers through the Gambia National Farmers Aggregation Cooperative Union for institutions such as health facilities and prisons, saying this would strengthen agricultural production and address marketing challenges faced by farmers.
