Farmers in most parts of The Gambia have predicted that this year's farming season will be good with abundant harvest.

Since the start of this year's rain, many farmers in the country have been busy on their farms, growing crops of different categories to ensure food self-sufficiency. Staple food, such as coos, groundnuts, maize, yams and rice, among other seasonal crops are grown in almost all parts of the country. This, many believed is in response to The Gambian leader, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh's call for Gambians to till the land and eat what they grow.

Agriculture is believed to be among the rapid sources for the attainment of a country's food self-suffiency. It is also approved to be one of the quickest activities to drive away hunger in a country. The massive engagement of Gambians in farming will help them drive away the scourge of hunger, as the harvest will go a long way in taking care of some of the family needs.

This reporter recently gauged the minds of some farmers in Kafuta village, in the Kombo East, on their expectations about this year's rainy season. Lamin Saidy, a native of the village said their crops are doing well. That there is high hope that this farming season will be successful. "I have grown various crops ranging from groundnuts, maize and even yams," Saidy said.

According to him, he has completed weeding on some of his farms and will be starting the second round of the weeding soon. "I think people are taking heed to the president's back-to-the land call, which after all is to help ourselves. It will ensure that we eat what we grow," he said. This, he observed will go a long way in cutting down the cost of importation of foreign foodstuffs in the country.

Foday Camara, another farmer also expressed that there will be good  harvest in this year's farming season as people are responding massively to President Jammeh's call. "I and my family have grown rice, groundnuts, maize among others. When these are harvestd, they will really help us, considering the huge amount of money we have spent on bags of rice and foodstuffs," he concluded.