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RICE as a staple food in Gambia is mainly imported from Asia (Photo credit: Facts and Details) |
We will
strive for and ensure self-sufficiency in food production in three years and go
into the export domain in 2017 without fail, The Gambia’s President Yahya
Jammeh declared on Sunday.
Speaking
on the eve of his July 22 Coup Anniversary, 19 years on, Jammeh reiterated his
call for his country’s people to endeavour to “grow what we eat and eat what we
grow” in order to ensure food self-sufficiency.
In June this year, the Gambian
leader declared a ban on rice imports from 2016 in a bid to boost demand for
local produce and move towards self-sufficiency.
“Come 2016, we will ban the importation
of rice into this country in order to strengthen local food industries as well
as promote food self-sufficiency and good health,” Jammeh said during a
nationwide tour dubbed “Meet the people tour”.
The poor West African country
heavily depends on rice as a staple food – which has led the country’s imports
of agricultural produce from South-East Asia until 2009.
A week earlier, The Gambia
Government had announced a ban on imports of frozen chicken legs.
Jammeh
seized power in a bloodless military coup on July 22, 1994.
Written by Modou S. Joof
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