The Department of Agriculture, last Tuesday handed over seventy shines hoes and one hundred sickles of farm implement to regional Agricultural directors for onward transmission to the farmers in NBR, CRR-North and South and URR.
The provision of the equipment target to boost agricultural production and productivity in the country. The equipment was provided through the support of the P2RS Project under NEMA.
The shines hoes and sickles are Gambia-made and procured by the department of agriculture. The provision of the equipment is meant to address the plight of Gambian farmers.
The equipment was handed to directors at Cape Point in Bakau, attended by various staff of the department of agriculture.
Deputy administrator of the department of agriculture, Lamin Darboe said the primary focus of the department is the welfare of the farmers in a bid to improve their livelihood.
Famara Trawally, regional agriculture Director of CRR-South, said P2RS is an African Development Bank and Gambia government funded project.
He said the project is managed by NEMA consortium, saying principally, the project has been helping the department of agriculture with two key interventions of capacity building, and the provision of inputs.
He said this is a resilient project as climate change continues to threaten life and the environment. “We are all aware of what climate change entails and we need to build the resilience of affected countries like The Gambia,” he said, adding that the project came to support countries that are vulnerable to climate change.
According to him, P2RS came with conservation agriculture and it conducted series of agriculture extension training for farmers in all the four benefitted regions. He said the project targets to promote the findi crop.
Director General of the Department of Agriculture, Dr. Saikou Sanyang said farming implements were the major concern of the farmers but thanks to the agriculture projects like FASDEP and Nema, the concerns are addressed.
Dr Sanyang said ninety-four shines hoes will be handed over to findi growers in the four intervention regions. He said the department also considers other regions like LRR and West Coast Region.
We are also handing over one hundred sickles to the regional directors for onward transmission to the farmers to boost their production and productivity. He said the objectives of this support by the Nema P2RS climate component is to address some of the issues that farmers had been complaining about, such as the provision of small farm implementations.
He also said the objectives is to help the farmers to increase their production and productivity because giving out farm implement to farmers means you are strengthening them .He also stated that this farm implement will also help them in their timely operation of findi production not only findi as a crop but also other food crop .He also stated that findi is a healthy diet in the sense that it cure some of the non-communicable disease.
He also stated that boosting the production and productivity of findi will go a long way in increasing the income and nutritional security of our farmers, so this is a step in the right direction.
