By Assan Bah
Dr. Demba Sabally, the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Security on Wednesday, September 11, 2024, shrugged off claims that there is scarcity of fertilizer in the country.
Dr Sabally made this disclosure while responding to a question from the Hon. Member for Lower Badibou who asked him to explain what led to scarcity of fertilizer in his constituency in particular, and the North Bank Region (NBR) in general.
Responding to the member’s question, the minister said: “During the 2023 farming season, the Ministry of Agriculture through the National Food Processing and Marketing Corporation (NFPMC) received 35, 000 metric tons of fertilizer. This includes the 25, 000 tons supplied by the World Bank through the GIRAV project and 20, 000 tons supplied by the government of the Gambia. The NFPMC had a balance of 6, 000 tons from the previous year making it to a total of 41, 000 tons.’’
According to him, a total quantity of twenty-one thousand, nine-hundred and nineteen (21, 919) metric tons of fertilizer, was supplied to farmers during this year’s farming season leaving a balance of 19, 086 metric tons which was stored and preserved for the 2024 farming season and dry season activities.
“In preparation for the 2024 season, the government purchased an additional 10, 000 metric tons to ensure sufficient fertilizer is available for our farmers. This is consistent with my previous report to this august Assembly where I reported that 28, 000 metric tons of fertilizer was available for this year’s farming season.
“To date, close to 20, 000 metric tons of the above quantity has been supplied to farmers nationwide. In NBR in particular, we have supplied through our regional depots in Kerewan, Barra, and partly Kaur, a total of 8, 802.95 metric tons of fertilizer equivalent to one hundred and seventy-six thousand, and fifty-nine bags of fifty-kilo bags of fertilizer. North Bank has no fertilizer scarcity,’’ Minister Sabally said.
The NAM, however, countered the minister’s assertion that there was enough fertilizer in NBR, adding that at the beginning of the rainy season, farmers struggled to get fertilizer.
Further responding to the member, the Minister said he would not deny that there was an accessibility problem at the beginning of the rainy, saying he did make a nationwide tour of fertilizer depots to assess the availability of fertilizer in the country.
“In previous years, the GGC dealt primarily with cooperatives and there were so many issues regarding payments that led to a mixture of cooperatives and some private individuals, in order to improve access,’’ he said.
He, however, said that the approach had also emerged with certain challenges at the beginning of the rainy season, there were issues of access.
Similarly, the Member for Sami Constituency, Hon. Alfusainey Ceesay, informed the minister of a borehole problem at the Sotokoi women’s garden and asked him to explain whether his Ministry has any plans to rehabilitate all boreholes across the women’s gardens in the country.
In his response, the Minister said: “The department is aware of the above-mentioned constraint. However, the problem has already been addressed by one of our GAFSP projects. In addition, the ministry is advancing efforts to other gardens that have similar problems or establish or rehabilitate women’s gardens across the country. The ROOTS project has recently rehabilitated 15 gardens across the country and 8 unfinished NEMA gardens which will be completed by the ROOTS project before the end of the year.’’
In a supplementary question, the Member asked the minister whether he wanted them to believe that the borehole at the Sotokoi women’s garden is functioning, and he responded thus:
“Based on the information I received from the project, it is functioning,” the Minister answered.
However, the member was not convinced by the minister’s answer and he asked him (the minister) to tell them the last time he visited the garden.
The Minister responded that he would not know and repeated that the information was given to him by his technicians.
“Is there any other project apart from the ROOTS project that are renovating gardens,” the Member for Foni Bintang, Bakary K. Badjie, asked the Minister of Agriculture.
In his response, the Minister said “there are other projects that are either establishing or renovating gardens across the country”.
The Member for Latri Kunda Sabiji, Hon.Yahya Sanyang, told the minister that the NEMA project was implemented but it failed, and ROOTS took over and he asked: “Are you telling us that GIRAV is also doing the same gardening project?’’
The Minister however disagreed with the NAMs assertion that the NEMA project failed.
“The demand for gardening in the country is in the thousands and as a result, one project cannot address the entire national demand. We currently have about three projects and they are not necessarily operating in the same area, but working on gardens and garden projects which goes with some packages,’’ he said.
