The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has over the past few years raised its portfolio in Gambia from US$5.5million to $35million currently by strengthening the quality and level of assistance to the West African country.
FAO’s outgoing Country Representative, Ms. Perpetua Katepa-Kalala said this on Friday after a courtesy farewell call on Gambian President Adama Barrow at State House.
Addressing journalists after her audience with the President, she said the FAO worked closely with the Ministry of Agriculture, and several other ministries including environment, fisheries, education, youth and sports.
The UN specialised agency also partnered with government agencies such as the Food Safety Agency and the National Nutrition Agency.
Ms. Katea-Kalala outlined some of the notable achievements of the UN body such as the strengthening of the extension system in The Gambia, especially what are now called farmer field schools.
She revealed that the new scheme has over 10, 000 farmers who are currently part of the FAO programmes to strengthen agriculture extension.
The FAO Gambia Office also supports the certification of seeds locally and strengthening the monitoring mechanisms to ensure quality of food, better surveillance systems, linking farmers to markets, and value addition to grow the sector.
“Cognizant of the impact of climate change, small holder farmers and artisanal fisheries are engaged to understand climate change issues better. FAO also supported the conduct of a livestock census, and livestock vaccination campaigns,” she noted.
Expressed appreciation for FAO’s technical support to The Gambia, President Barrow remarked that their intervention, guidance and partnership made the work of government less hectic and the vision of the National Development Plan on food security even more achievable.