By: Modou Touray
The regional director of agriculture in the Lower River Region (LRR), Mr Momodou Lamin Darboe, has admitted that some farmers in his region could not cultivate their crops on time due to delay in accessing tractors. He is worried that the impact might affect crop yields, thereby impeding efforts to attain food self-sufficiency.
“Our hope is to produce enough food for the country so that we will not rely on imported rice. Secondly, prices of basic food commodities will reduce.”
He said several farmers, especially those engaged in commercial agriculture, depend on modern ploughing tools.
“The number of tractors for ploughing is inadequate and cannot provide the ploughing needs of farmers in the Lower River Region. This has a negative impact on the growth of crops, particularly rice in this rainy season.”
The Lower River Region stretches from Kiang Jataba to Jarra Pakaliba. Sankandi to Kemoto is about 50 kilometers off the main road with a huge farming population. Most of the remote rural settlements depend on crop cultivation for their survival. Tractors enhance timely and large cultivation of crops.
“Some of the farmers who ploughed early after the first and second rainfall are at an advantage because their crops are performing well. Unfortunately, there was a few weeks of dry which affected farmers severely,” Mr Darboe added.
According to him, their general technical advice to farmers is to quickly plough and start cultivation after the first heavy rainfall.
“If tractors are not enough for farmers it will be impossible to do their agricultural activities as scheduled.”
Mr Darboe further stated that his office provided support to rural farmers by providing them with seeds at the start of the rainy season.
“As a regional office, we provide rice, maize and other commonly grown seed varieties to farmers.
The regional agriculture office is not only providing seeds but also routinely embarking on monitoring visits to farms. We monitor the performance of crops which enables us to ascertain their progress level and give technical advice where necessary.”
Reacting to challenges of individual farmers, Mr. Darboe was announced that some supports are available at the agricultural department which farmers could use to boast their farming.
Farmers in the rural areas especially in the lower river region faces many challenges which the overseer body, the region Agric Director struggles to solve.
Mr Momodou Lamin Darboe was speaking as a keynote speaker at a two-day media training organized by the Network of Agricultural Communicators (NAC) the Gambia and the Gambia Press Union. The training aimed to build the capacity of agricultural reporters on agricultural communication, networking, and story angling with reporting techniques.
The capacity enhancement will help the journalists to better report on agriculture which will help farmers direct their challenges to relevant authorities in that way to enhance agricultural development.
