Students of Essau Senior Secondary School last Friday planted 200 cashew trees at the  school in the Lower Niumi District, North Bank Region.

Speaking to the Daily Observer's NBR correspondent, David M.S Gomez, the principal of the school, outlined the importance of tree planting in an environment, which he said cannot be over emphasised. "It's from the trees we get water and with more water we can enhance. So we deem it necessary to educate the students on food production to get the spirit of growing what they eat to become stronger," he remarked. He said that it is the responsibility of every Gambian, to plant a tree to fight against deforestation.

Omar Sohna, a board member of the school said, the president's back-to-the-land initiative is not only for the farmers but for every one in ensuring food self-sufficiency in the country, which also creates self employment particularly for the youths as the president himself is the number one farmer, and is setting example for all.

Sohna believed that, if everyone goes back to the land, the issue of importing food like rice would become history in the country. He therefore urged the students to take farming seriously.