By Assan Bah
The Master Farmers’ Cooperative Association (MaFCA), a registered farmer organisation with a broad membership of men, women, and youth across the country on Wednesday, 26 June 2024, held its maiden annual general meeting (AGM) at the Wellingara Agricultural Centre to review its activities, identify its challenges, discuss ways forward and elect a new executive committee that will run the affairs of the association for the next three years.
The association was established in November 2021 to establish a credible professional farmer association that aims to transform the agricultural sector of the country to be more attractive through knowledge sharing and to improve production with access to inputs and markets. It has membership criteria for large-scale production in the area of crop and livestock production.
Giving his welcome remarks, Mr Sheikh Drammeh, the President of MaFCA, said the association’s main aim is to fight poverty through agriculture. He said despite needing a lot of support from the government they have since the establishment been trying on their own, but said they have not received any support from the government.
He further said the association’s strategy is to mobilise members’ resources to buy inputs, and protect and serve the interest of its members along the agricultural value chain.
“We have both the land and water resources in the country but we are still importing most of what we eat because we are not properly utilising our resources,” he added.
He called on the government to give more support to the agricultural sector.
Mr Sheriff Bojang, President of the National Farmers Platform (NFP), advises members to always put aside political, religious, and tribal differences in the affairs of the association, saying that these issues when overlooked can ruin the association.
On his part, the Director of Cooperative, Mr Aba Sankareh, while highlighting the importance of Annual General Meetings (AGM) commended MaFCA for conducting an AGM within five years of their existence. He advised the association to always collaborate with other sister associations.
He advises associations to not only go after projects saying that projects have a timeline, therefore, they should embark on sustainable initiatives.
