By Fatou B. Cham
The newly appointed Minister of Agriculture, Honourable Dr. Demba Sabally Monday, 23rd May 2022, embarked on a familiarization tour to various Departments and Project sites under the Ministry of Agriculture.
Fatou Jammeh Touray, deputy permanent secretary, Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) gave a brief synopsis of the tour stating that the tour is geared towards acquainting the newly appointed Minister to various departments and as well as projects under MOA as tradition demands.
The tour “is also geared towards establishing a way forward for collective and positive achievement of the goals that we set for ourselves” DPS Jammeh added.
Upon arrival at the Department of Planning, the Minister and delegation from MoA and the Central Project Coordinating Unit (CPCU) were received by Sabina Mendy who was deputizing the Director of Planning Services.
Madam Mendy after welcoming the delegation gave a brief rundown of the Department of Planning Services stating that the department is one of the nine departments under MoA whose mandate is to collect and process agricultural data which would be used for the development of projects and programs.
“In implementing these tasks, we are faced with lots of challenges which include funding, since our mandate is to collect and process data, in data collection we need fuel, mobility and data collection tools,” she mentioned.
According to Madam Mendy, this has been a challenge to them and it has delayed and limited some of the activities the Department should implement. Adding that they are supposed to start their preseason but due to lack of funds, they have not yet started and it is time overdue because it is from the preseason that they inform the policymakers of the situation of the upcoming season.
The team on the tour later in the day proceeded to Department of Agriculture and its satellite units.
Dr. Saikou E. Sanyang, director general, department of Agriculture also welcomed the newly appointed Minister, stating that the Department is one of the biggest sectors as far as Agricultural sector is concerned.
He informed the gathering that a courtesy call was paid by him and his team to the newly appointed Minister which they used as an opportunity to have series of discussions on the challenges the Department is facing and the achievements, they have so far registered.
He revealed that the Department also has mixed farming centers, “they are important to farmers and field workers and efforts are underway to rehabilitate some of these centers,”
For his part, Hon. Dr. Demba Sabally, Minister of Agriculture, acknowledged the warm reception received from both Departments, stating the objective of his visit which is to familiarize himself with the departments under his purview whilst obtaining firsthand information on the needs and possible challenges of these respective departments.
“The challenges that have been raised in most Departments are about the lack of funding or mobility which is hindering their services. This is not as a result of their incapability but the unavailability of resources,” Honourable Sabally stated.
According to him, the core mandate of the Department of planning is very essential and it is not by coincidence that the first place he and his team visited first was the Planning Department stating that if one does not plan then he or she would fail and this does not only affect Agriculture.