Dr Aja Isatou Njie-Saidy, the vice-president and secretary of state for Women's Affairs, who represented President Jammeh as SoS for Agriculture, during a question-and-answer session of the National Assembly, has disclosed that the Department of State for Agriculture has put in place strategic measures to combat the phenomenon of global food crisis and soaring prices. The vice-president said this challenge has taken centre stage in government's current development efforts.

The vice-president made these remarks while responding to a question posed to her by Momodou LK Sanneh, the minority leader and NAM for Kiang West, on whether the Department of State for Agriculture has any immediate plans to invest in agriculture to enable farmers to work all year round in order to increase the production of cereals crops, in the face of the current global food crisis.

According to Vice-President Njie-Saidy, the state department has put in place heavy investment for agricultural machinery, which includes irrigation facilities and the tractor-loan scheme with KGI International, the provision of agricultural inputs, the empowerment of farmers through intensive training on issues related to increased food production and management of cropping strategies to minimise the impact of food crisis on the farming communities.

With the introduction of irrigation machinery and other facilities, the vice-president continued, all-year-round production can be achieved.