The Venezuela ambassador to the Gambia, Mrs Louder Perez, recently organised a briefing session for 7 Gambian students who had just returned from Venezuela, at the end of a 3 months intensive study in agriculture. The reception was hosted at the new Venezuelan Embassy complex in Kotu.

The purpose of the briefing was to expose the students to the media so that they could share their knowledge with the wider Gambian community, as to the new skills and technologies that they acquired while in Venezuela.

Addressing the session, Ambassador Perez expressed joy that the students had successfully completed their study.  She remarked that the cooperation between the Gambia and Venezuela was part of the general framework of agreement that President Hugo Charvez is building between her country and Africa.

She further indicated that the cooperation was neither based on money nor material, but rather, it was a new type of cooperation that aims to build the capacity of the people for their own development so as to enable them to eliminate poverty.  She called on the students to be ready to share their knowledge with their people, adding that Venezuela was looking forward to expanding the cooperation to other sectors of the country, not only agriculture.

For their part, the students expressed great satisfaction about the state of agricultural mechanisation in Venezuela.  They also spoke at length about the various skills and techniques they learned, ranging from horticulture; seed production; aqua culture; food processing; and a host of other disciplines.  They made strong promises to ensure taking their knowledge to the grass root by sharing their new skills and techniques with their fellow farmers in the fields.

The students further expressed optimism that with available resources, The Gambia has a great potential to mechanise her agricultural sector. They therefore called on the government to assist them with the necessary tools and equipment to enable them put into practice their knowledge and accomplish the dream of mechanising agriculture in the country. They also called on their fellow farmers to be open to changes and to accept the new skills and techniques from them, so that collectively they can improve the quality of production.