Mohamadou Musa Njie, alias Papa Secretary General and Party Leader of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has urged government to diversify the agricultural practices by providing targeted scholarships for youth.
The youths can be train in appropriate and improved agricultural production systems such as farms mechanizations and repairs, irrigations, environmental, production and agronomy.
“The State of the farming season in The Gambia” said that: “It is about time we properly harness our water resources to boost year round agricultural production through irrigation. It is a sobering reflection that in a relatively short period of our history most of our larger wildlife species have disappeared together with much of the original forest cover,” he said in press release received by The Voice.
According to him, the survival of the wildlife still remaining with us and the setting aside of protected natural habitats for them is the concern of all of us and it would be tragic if this priceless natural heritage, the product of millions of years of evolution, should be further endangered or lost for want of proper concern.
“This concern is a duty we owe to ourselves, to our great African heritage and to the world Thus I solemnly declare that my Government pledges its untiring efforts to conserve for now and posterity as wide a spectrum as possible of our remaining fauna and flora.
It is now mid-august, and The Gambia is currently experiencing irregular rains. These irregular rains patterns are somehow linked to the phenomenon of climate change which has been adversely affecting The Gambia and other countries within the Sahel region,” he noted.
He observed that prognosis is bleak with crops wilting, planted seed not germinating in some regions, livestock on the loose, scavenging for dwindling grazing land and pasture including foraging the few planted fields.
Njie also noted that even if the rains were to start in earnest, it is obvious that most farmers would not have the resources to replant their farms or reap a bumper harvest as the remaining rains might prove insufficient to attain this goal.
According to him, the situation is likely to be worsened by the likelihood of the hungry season setting in earlier than usual, as farmers’ food stock and reserves would have diminished before the new harvest, saying that is if there is any harvest at all.
He added that on livestock, the extensive method of rearing is no longer possible due to limited land resources.
He urged that it is time to introduce modern systems of livestock production to ensure a reliable livestock value chain and a sustainable management of our lands to avoid potential conflict between farmers and herders in The Gambia at a macro level, saying that poor groundnut harvest would likely impact food security and foreign currency earnings negatively.
“In a nutshell, if the trend continues, the prospect of protracted drought and food insecurity cannot be ruled out. There is therefore an urgent need for the Government to step up to the plate by acting now to avert the advent of such a bleak situation and guarantee the food security of our populations,” Njie pointed out.