RICE as a staple food in Gambia is mainly imported from Asia (Photo credit: Facts and Details) |
The
Gambia has the potential to produce more than two million tonnes of rice
yearly, it’s President and leading farmer, Yahya Jammeh has said.
Two weeks ago,
Jammeh announced his government’s plan to initiate an all-year rice production
scheme that could further efforts to attaining food self-sufficiency. We must feed ourselves, he said of The Gambia, which is endowed with land and fresh
water.
Jammeh had since last year vowed to ban the importation of rice, a staple, into the West African
country by 2016. He is touring the country on his annual ‘meet-the-people-tour’
with an idea of a “Vision 2016 Rice Self-sufficiency Agenda.”
State TV images
show Mr Jammeh visiting farms lands and rice fields across the regions, which
he said if developed, the country can produce more than two million tonnes of
rice on a yearly basis.
“I
can see that even the Central River Region (CRR) alone the potentials are
there… we can produce millions of tonnes of rice and other cereals in this
country,” the Daily Observer quoted
Mr Jammeh as saying on April 28,
2014.
“After
so many years of being a net importer of food items, we will become one of the
biggest exporters of rice in five years time. We must achieve that.”
‘Most important
staple’
According
to the Agriculture and Natural Resources
Policy (ANR 2009-2015), the total rice production in 2008 was 24, 895
tonnes, leaving a massive deficit of 150, 605 tons of national requirement.
Rice
is the most important staple food crop in The Gambia with per person
consumption rate of about 117kg, according to a 2002 study, Economic Impact Assessment of the Rice
Research Programme in The Gambia.
It
accounts for 25-30 per cent of total cereal consumption, with the country’s
annual total rice requirement estimated at 157, 616 tonnes.
The
study indicated that only 12 per cent is being met through local production
(19,000 tonnes). “This huge deficit is
made up of costly imports, which in 2000 cost Gambia D196 million to import 94
tonnes.”
It
stated that the potential for rice production is greater in the lowlands and
this accounts for about 65 per cent of The Gambia’s 11300 km2 land
area. Current rice production yields are generally low with an average of 700kg
per hectare for local and up to 1 tonne per hectare for improved
cultivars.
From
1988-2000, Gambia’s upland rice production increased from 3.88-10.08 tonnes
while swamp rice production decreased from 19.63-10.6 tonnes, according to a National Sample Survey (NASS) of the
department of planning.
‘Great potential’
Food
and Agricultural Organisation, FAO, statistics in 1995 indicated that the
average rice self-sufficiency in West Africa was at 46.6 per cent between 1986
and 1996, with The Gambia standing at 18 per cent.
“The potential arable land in Africa
is 637 million hectares and about 68 per cent of the total area is in
reserves,” researcher Okigbo B.N.
stated in The Developmental Effectiveness of Food in Africa, study of
1982.
“Africa therefore has great
potential for expanding its agricultural production in general and rice in
particular,” the study published by the New York Agricultural Development
Council stated.
In
The Gambia, it is estimated that there are 5000-7000 hectares that could be
cultivated under upland rice, but a 1995 NASS survey estimated that only 3, 043
hectares were cultivated, with an average yield of 1.2 tonnes per hectare.
The
crops sub-sector generates about 40 per cent of foreign exchange earnings and
accounts for about 33 per cent of Gambia’s gross domestic product, the total
value of goods and services that the country produces in a year.
Seventy
per cent of the labour force is engaged in crop production which provides for
about 75 per cent of total household incomes, the ANR policy stated.
Experts
say The Gambia’s underutilized agricultural potentials are mainly due to
insufficient investment in the sector and the high illiteracy rate among
farmers who lack the knowledge and resources to expand production beyond
subsistence farming and heavy reliance on rain-fed cropping.
Written by Modou S. Joof
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