Gambia News : Gambia launches big project to boost agriculture
Oct 19,2008 00:00
by
lamin
A US$12.71 million dollars Gambia Lowland Development project (GALDED)
was launched in Banjul on Friday to focus on boosting agriculture in
the Western Region. Mr. Bakary Trawally, permanent secretary at the
Department of State for Agriculture, who launched the five-year
project, said it would help improve food securit y and production of
rice, cereals, vegetables and fruits in the Western Region through the
improvement of lowland soil and water management, as well as developing
irrigation in the upland.According to him the project was jointly funded by the Gambia government and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).
Mr Trawally said the project had a potential rice cultivation area of 22,400 hectares, out of which 2,500 hectares was being cultivated.
It is expected to benefit about 27,000 farmhouse holds with a total population of 393,000 people in the Western Region.
Mr Trawally added that domestic milled rice production would increase by 7,000 tones per year, which is equivalent to foreign exchange savings of US$2 million per year, while the income of participating farmers, 95 per cent of whom are women , would increase from D5,500 per hectare per year to D22,000 per hectare per year.