How agriculture has evolved from 1994 till date #gambia

There can be no sustainable development without the
attainment of food self-sufficiency, which undoubtedly
makes agriculture a crucial component in the development
endeavors of every nation. The recognition of this reality in
combination with other factors explains President Yahya
Jammeh's approach towards farming, putting agriculture as
the basis of The Gambia's development.
Twenty years on today Sheriff Janko assess some of the
gains made in this crucial sector. What is unique about the
July 22nd Revolution is that the president did not just stop
at making mere policy statements of the initiative, but he
personally takes the lead as the Number One farmer in the
country. He went further than that, proving to the entire
nation and beyond, that he is an action-oriented leader,
who stands by his words. Regardless of his status as a
president, he toils on the farm to produce food for the nation
and beyond. There is no reason to speak further in justifying
this statement, as his position in the clarion call for back-
to-the-land is a well-known fact across the world.
This is solid proof to all skeptics that the president and the
people, are collectively registering success in the drive to
make The Gambia food self-sufficient, a reality which has
enabled us earn the respect of the world. However, we
should not lessen our efforts. We should continue to spur
our ambitions in agricultural development. By so doing, the
dream of transforming the country into a Silicon Valley will
be a dream come true. His ambition for a redirection in this
sector dates back to the transition period, when he
championed the "back-to-the-land" call initiative, aimed at
ensuring that the nation achieves food self-sufficiency.
Meanwhile, since agriculture is the mainstay of the
country's economy and a life-saver for the citizens,
providing over 70 percent of employment, President
Jammeh continues to encourage and inspire more
Gambians into farming, through his pragmatic and
exemplary farming activities, as seen in Kanilai where he
often spends his annual leave, toiling hard on his farms. His
government has since 1994 been making giant efforts
towards agricultural mechanisation in view of the fact that
the nation cannot be food self-sufficient and export surplus
without the former [mechanisation]. This was manifested
over the past years, as he has distributed new tractors to all
the regions and districts of the country in anticipation for a
major assault on food insecurity. Despite the fact that, a
miserable crop failure was registered during the previous
cropping season, due to erratic and poorly distributed
rainfall, these tractors together with the massive
investments in millions of dollars by the government and its
development partners are expected to reinforce the anti-
hunger crusade of the country in the coming years.
Efforts have also been made by the government to diversify
this sector as much as possible and introduce well
recommended new seed varieties from other countries.
"Agriculture continues to play a prominent role in the
livelihoods of the people of this country, as it continues to
contribute over 30% of GDP, providing employment for over
70% of the population. And since 1994, there has been a
significant development in the field of agriculture and food
security, in particular. Technically, most people will say the
progress and the developments have been very slow, but
this development can be regarded as a silent transformation
of agriculture from what it used to be before 1994. A very
good example is with regards to food availability, taking
into account when you talk of food security; there are two
important components; i.e. availability and access.
Availability is what you produce and access is having the
resources to purchase food, if you cannot produce. And
we've seen significant improvements in access to food
since 1994; and a good example is that before 1994, there
used to be food shortfalls, food deficits and then the
excuses were that the ships bringing in food from Asia were
delayed; and there was a lot of hoarding of what food was
available. For example, shopkeepers and traders will tell
you that you have to buy tomato paste from him or her to
sell you rice and there used to be long queues all over the
country, whenever there is a shortage of rice", the Minister
of Agriculture Solomon Owens told Daily Observer, during
an exclusive interview as part of activities marking the 20
anniversary of the July 22nd Revolution.
In addition to that, he said, traditionally The Gambia and
some of its neighbors used to experience what they used to
call the 'hungry season,' a period between July and
September; and this is usually when the food produced
during the season is exhausted, and there is no food and
people would start rationing the amount of food they
consume during the period, thus the name 'Hungry Season'.
Now this is a thing of the past and even if it exists, it has
become very short to the extent that people don't even
experience or feel it. Nowadays, you can tell the difference
in terms of food availability between the months of January
and August, because even where availability is restricted,
access is there and food is still available in the stores and
in the warehouses. So, that is a significant improvement
when it comes to food security, thanks to the July 22nd
Revolution, food is available throughout the year.
Minister Owens added; "Food that is bigger produced
realising the availability component goals, set the food
security, or people have enough income to buy food, thus
addressing the food access path. So, I think is a big
success in the area of agriculture between 1994 and now.
Secondly, I think farmers have become richer between 1994
and now, taking into account the producer price of their
various commodities has been increasing every year.
Government has been paying higher prices, especially from
the exports crop (the groundnut) and this has encouraged
farmers to really produce more".
"Presently, The Gambia produced over 100,000 hectares of
groundnut that is cultivated and the same hectares for early
millet. Now, to show another development in the food
security aspect, millet used to be the staple food in most
parts of the rural Gambia. Today most of our millets are
exported to countries as far as Niger; you can find Gambian
millets in Niger. And what farmers are doing is selling the
millet they produced and buying rice. Again, this is even one
of the reasons, why we thought of coming up with Vision
2016; whereby the country won't imports rice, but produce
all the rice we consume. The consumption of rice is an
indication of improved standards of living.
"Most of the countries in West African did not have rice as
their staple food, until 1994 there were only four countries,
notably The Gambia, Senegal, Liberia and Sierra Leone that
used to consume rice. But today, every single country in
Africa is consuming rice and so we are spending billions of
dollars, just to import rice every year. But again is an
indication of high standards of living," he stated.
President's back-to-the land clarion call
Since he took over the country in 1994, the Gambian leader
has called on Gambians,especially the youth folks to revisit
the land and grow what we eat and eat what we grow. This
clarion call has paid dividends as some have embraced the
move, but still there is a need for attitudinal change,
especially among the youth folks. This call is extremely
important, taking into account the amount of money spent in
importing food into the country, including rice.
According to Minister Owens, the country still imports
wheat flour, vegetable oil and tomato paste and tonnes of
onions and Irish potatoes and when put together it amounts
to billions of dalasis spent on food imports. These, he said,
are all commodities that can be produced in the country.
"Just take an example of MA Kharafi, one of the private
sectors engaged in large-scale production of onions and
other food stuff. And government has given them this
incentive that they informed us two-three months before
their harvest, so that we ban the importation of those
produced until they're all sold. Equally, the president's
clarion call for people to go back-to-the-land, so as to eat
what we grow and grow what we eat I think is in the best
interest of Gambians. Interestingly, people were thinking
that the price of goods will eventually go down, not the
demand for food worldwide is on the increase every day;
and one thing that will never go down in price is food that is
imported into any country. That's the importance of this
clarion call".
It's an arguably fact that when foods are produced locally,
costs are reduced and availability is there. And there will be
no delays in shipping from Asia to Africa, and most
importantly, its freshness is undisputed. "Therefore, it a
moral responsibility for people to start producing their own
food locally, because in the long run food can be used as a
weapon against countries, meaning you may have all the
money to buy food and not be able to get that food into the
country. So, one of the greatest policies that has come out
of 1994 to date has been the president's clarion call for
people to go back-to-the-land and grow what they eat and
eat what they grow. By doing so, they will get freshness,
quality and quantity.
Mechanization in Agriculture
Mechanisation in agriculture is an important component in
the development of any nation. Today, as can be attested to,
there are a lot of tractors countrywide and the government
has insisted on mechanisation as one of the strategies to
increase agricultural production and productivity. In this day
and age, powered machinery has replaced many jobs
formerly carried out by men or animals, such as oxen,
horses and mules. This is indeed another great
transformation in ensuring that farmers in the country
realised high yields. "Another development that has
happened in the agriculture sector is the means and ways of
production. It used to be done with the traditional hand
hoes and a little bit of oxidization or animal traction. Since
1994, the government of The Gambia has distributed over
500 tractors to farmers and is being used in land
preparation; and just recently the government also brought
in seeders, fertilizers applicators and sprayers. These are
all implements that go with the tractors so as to mechanise
the old agricultural production process. That is indeed a
significant contribution to the agricultural development.
Again, we've seen irrigation and rises in the production of
rice has gone on the increase," added agric minister Owens.
Before 1994, there were only few pump irrigation schemes
in the country, mostly in URR and parts of CRR, but today
the country has moved from pump irrigation to tidal
irrigation; and with tidal irrigation the government has
brought some much land into production, especially during
the dry season. In addition to tidal irrigation, the
government is also exploring the possibilities of using the
ground water to produce upland crops, such as rice,
groundnut and maize.
"There is also the proliferation of vegetable gardens all over
the country. Formerly, vegetable garden production was
only restricted to West Coast Region, but now there are
countless vegetable production schemes all over the
country; as projects have come in, such as the LHDP and
GALDEP to name a few; and each of these projects have
established more than 5-hectare gardens facilities for
farmers, especially women farmers all over the country. And
this has increased the availability of fresh vegetables
throughout the year. That's another significant development
from 1994 to date. Some of the vegetable gardens are
equipped with boreholes and some even with vegetable
processing equipment.
Availability of seeds & fertilizer
Taking into account they are inter-twined naturally,
President Jammeh continues to give this sector prominence
so as to ensure high productivity. It's an arguable fact that
seeds and soil are the two components in ensuring
sustainable development, especially in agriculture. Due to
continuous cropping of our soils, has resulted in decline in
productivity in most cases, but government is aware of that
and is putting a lot of emphasis and strategies to address
the issue.
"Government is going to help breeders to come up with new
varieties of crops, but where we cannot breed the seeds
here, we can get seeds from other countries and improve
their quality here for adaptability. We do get seeds from
other countries for adaptability test and where these are
successful they are multiplied, because if we have varieties
of crops that are only producing one to two tonnes; and then
there are other crops that has the potential to produce five
tonnes I think that's where we come and try to multiply
them here. We talk about rice and that is a big component of
Vision 2016. For example, in Asia, using hybrids people are
aiming at 15/16 tons of rice per hectare. In The Gambia, we
are still below 2 tonnes. So with regards to Vision 2016, if
we can get to 5/6 tonnes per hectare, we are safer; and the
country is working towards that. Seeds are very important
and currently we are doing seeds improvement and
multiplication, not only for rice, but even groundnuts,
sesame and maize. The president even gave directives to
see the possibilities of breeding and developing vegetable
seeds in the country, because the country still imports a lot
of vegetable seeds in the country."
According to him, government is spending millions every
year to bring in organic fertilizer, mostly compound
fertiliser, NPK and Urea, as the country's soils are low in
nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium being the three main
elements in food productions. He maintained that farmers
are also encouraged to go into organic fertilization, as the
country boosts of over 400,000 heads of cattle heads, noting
that all the manure produced from these animals can help
improved our soil fertility. "But what we are seeing is that in
most of these communities the locals will gather this
manure that can help the soil and burn it before planting.
So, extension and education of farmers is also ongoing to
sensitise them to plough these manures into their soils".
Livestock sector
Shifting to the livestock sector, it has been recently
discovered that the country's cattle population is again on
the increase. Around 1994, there was something about
200,000 heads of cattle in the country, now because of
sound management and the availability of veterinary drugs
and improved feeds for the livestock, the last census
revealed that there are 400,000 heads of cattle in the
country. As we all know cattle are wealth and contribute
about 37% to the agricultural GDP of the country. That is
indeed a significant increase from what it used to be in
1994 to what it is now. Herders or cattle owners are now
more confident in increasing their herd sizes, because of the
availability of veterinary drugs and quality of feeds. So, the
development registered is tremendous as it cut across wide
sectors, including horticulture, crop production and animal
production and the list goes one.
However, over the past years there is an upsurge in the
private sector in poultry production on a large-scale. For
example, EMPAS and a couple of others that produce
poultry products, such as eggs and poultry in the country.
"We have diary plants that also produce milk and yoghurt.
These are all development initiatives that go to show how
the agriculture sector has evolved from 1994 to date".
Presidents' calls for shift to commercial agriculture
During one of his "Dialogue with the people's tour", the
president did not only call for Gambians to focus on
subsistence agriculture, but also challenged farmers to shift
and engage more in large-scale agricultural production, so
that the nation can move from predominantly subsistence
farming to commercial farming, in line with the objectives of
his government for the attainment of food security and
export of the surplus in the shortest possible time.
Meanwhile, agriculture all over the world has passed the
subsistence level; and it should be seen as a business and
that's what the president has realised. People can make
money in agriculture, but the country's farming population
is ageing; and if you go to the farms you will only find old
men. That's why every day the leadership implores on the
youth to revisit the land, because whatever you produce in
the field can generate money. Middlemen, who serve as
intermediary, are making so much money from the farmers.
"When these farmers produce their crops, middlemen buy
them at cheaper prizes and take it to big markets where
they make more than ten times profit, compared to the
farmer. So, why can't farmers manage how they market their
own crops because whatever is grown in this country can
be on sale? Imagine what a bag of millet now cost and
supposedly you have a hectare of millet; and you were able
to produced 2 tones, you are talking about 40 bags and a
bag of millet is going for thousands dalasis. Now multiply
40 by 1500, you are better than anybody working in an
office in terms of income for the whole year. Therefore, it is
important for people to see agriculture as a business as
there is money in it and people should go into it. I hope
personal intervention in agriculture has changed the
mindset of Gambians towards agriculture as he is always
calling on them to go back to the land as seen in
businesses. President Jammeh is leading by example as he
is the Number One farmer in the country. The president
grows so much rice, groundnut and maize and every single
crop produced in The Gambia. And every livestock available
in this country the president produces it. I'm sure people are
usually impressed with what his level of production is,
coupled with the quality of his produce and the prices he
sells it to people. But again he (President) uses this
produce to support the population in various areas. You go
to his farms you even get overwhelmed, personally
whenever I go there, I get overwhelmed. A very good
example was that, recently during the last tour he talked
about going into large-scale rice production."
Minister Owens maintained that these are some of the
qualities that people can copy from the Gambian leader in
his quest to ensure food self-sufficiency drive of the nation.
Vision 2016 food self-sufficiency drive
During his 2014 "Dialogue with the People Tour" the
Gambian leader has launched a new initiative, which will
cater for a very important part of the whole crusade with
regards to food security. As government continues to
provide Gambians with quite a good number of alternatives,
which if adhered to will lead to our total liberation from
poverty to more development, the Gambian leader
conceived the idea that The Gambia can grow all the food to
feed its population and hope that this could be a reality
through Vision 2016.
Minster Owens continued; "I hear people talking about that
there is no strategy document or plan. This is a vision and a
vision doesn't need a strategy plan and it was His
Excellency who came up with this idea, we can grow all the
food we eat and I think we can do that by 2016. And the
vision is not that by 2016, we will have all the food that we
need in this country, but by 2016 we are going to ban the
importation of rice as an important staple food into the
country. Now, if no more rice is coming from Thailand,
Vietnam or Burma, it will motivate people to go and farm
their own food-rice and that's the whole idea. The country
has to ban importation of food commodities, so that people
can know that they have to produce their own food. You
don't need a strategy document for that; it's a vision and
people should understand that the vision is tied towards
realising that through various activities. The activities are
there and the government will support any private sector
that wants to go into producing and processing. It will also
support a farmer who wants to grow rice or any other crops
with inputs and mechanisation". According to him, the
government has distributed tractors during the dry season;
for farmers to plough their land so that when it rains they
are ready to go.
"Well, these are some of the activities that will help us
realise this vision, but you don't need a strategy document
for that. What we need is to realise this vision."
In realising these dreams, Minister Owens added, a key
component of this apart from the farmers that are producing
the food will be the private sector, that is importing rice.
"And rather than importing rice they can contribute towards
its production, processing, branding and marketing and
that's the key. Because I don't see the reason why
somebody importing rice from Thailand cannot go to
Pacharr or Jahally tomorrow and say ok whatever you
produce government is going to buy it and even label it as
Jahally rice, so that you would start having it right there so
that in 2016 whatever rice you buy you would know it's real
Gambian and it would be fresh."
Call for attitudinal change
Youths as future leaders of tomorrow should therefore take
ownership of the president's back-to-the-land call and
make agriculture an enterprising business. Since he took
over the country in 1994, President Jammeh has instituted
and continues to establish numerous projects for youth
empowerment. In the same vein, Minister Owens called for
attitudinal change, a call being spearheaded by the
president himself, in ensuring that Gambians take
ownership of the development process. He added; "What the
Gambian leader keeps saying is the need for young people
to embrace agriculture so as to attain the country's food
self-sufficiency drive. Our farming population is ageing, as
the average age of a farmer is over 50 years; there is a need
for youths to change their mindset to participate more in
agriculture. In the next 10 years, there will be no people on
the farms except women as the chunk of the farming
population are ageing. So, this is where the youth folks
comes in and government will give them all the necessary
support."
As a matter of fact, if the abled-bodied youths who can
farm, continue to neglect farming, then the country's
dreams of making headway will be jeopardised. Minister
Owens therefore asserted that for the realisation of food or
economic development of Vision 2016 and 2020,
respectively, entirely lies in the hands of the youths, adding
that their participation is greatly crucial in making sure the
country marches towards the attainment of these lofty
goals, considering the amount of money one can make out
of farming.
"So our appeal and my final appeal is for the youths to get
this as we will give them all the necessary
support.Government has projects with the resources to
support youths to go even into agro-processing, but it is
based on a sound business plan. Even for production, one
needs a sound business plan; and once that is done and
able to get 40% from somewhere else supported by a bank
or finance institution, government gives you 60% as a
grant."
This tangible call is the best path to meaningful socio-
economic transformation as for development, like the
president has always emphasised, it cannot be durable if
the people for whom it is meant for are not part of the
initiators and implementers of the concerned projects.
Ecowas Commissioner's takes on Jammeh's Agricultural
interventions
Since he took over the country, President Jammeh's
personal intervention in the agriculture sector has been
tremendous and this has continued to earn him greater
admiration from a broad spectrum of society, both at home
and at the international front. 19 years on, he did not look
back in making sure the country attains its lofty dreams set
for in the realisation of the food self-sufficiency in the
shortest possible time.
Among the high-profile dignitaries, who acknowledged
President Jammeh's agriculture interventions during one of
his earlier visits to The Gambia, was the commissioner for
Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources of the
Ecowas Commission, Osseini Salifu. Speaking to reporters,
the Ecowas official strongly praised the Gambian leader,
Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, for his personal
involvement in agricultural activities.
"We were highly impressed when we learned of President
Jammeh's involvement in agriculture, as well as his various
projects in that sector," he said. Further expressing his
admiration of the level of political support in the drive to
promote agricultural activities in The Gambia, he explained
that President Jammeh's actions are in line with the
concerns of the commission and various regional heads of
state. In fact, he added, "The Gambia seems to be well
ahead in this regard and we are sure that if we keep
collaborating in this way, we will definitely achieve positive
results." He further explained that a forum on private sector
intervention in agri-business, which took place in
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in February 2009 was meant
to reveal the rich potential of the agricultural sector in West
Africa and to encourage investment in this vital sector.
"It would be very profitable for economic operators to be
involved, for example, in not only importing rice, but in
developing and growing rice,' he said. The involvement of
the private sector and indeed all parties, he added, is vital
to the growth and development of the sector.