The managing director of the Kanilai Group International (KGI) and Kanilai Family Farms (KFF) has applauded the back-to-the-land call of the Gambian leader, underscoring that the initiative has the potential to not only reduce poverty, but also make The Gambia a food basket.

Pa Bojang was speaking recently during an intense farming activity in the Kombo North coastal village of Brufut, where the natives of the said village and other neighbouring communities such as Wullingkama and Ghana Town converged on the president’s farm for cultivation. The five-square-hectare farm was meant for the cultivation of a variety of crops including a Moroccan-type groundnut and maize.

Speaking during an interview at the site, Bojang disclosed that currently they have about 20 to 30 farms across Kombo North District alone. Expressing hope for a bumper harvest this year, the KGI boss indicated that they have also extended their arm to the provinces where they are overseeing the Jurunkou farm of more than 20 hectares. He said their aim is to reinforce the president’s back-to-the-land initiative through farming activities in different locations across the country.

While commenting on the significance of the initiative, Bojang said the presidential call would in no small measure help to reduce hunger and poverty, in that, enabling the country to become food self-sufficient.“If people make farming a habit, it will help reduce the cost of our daily expenditure on imported foods; and it will also help reduce the cost of basic food commodities,” he concluded.

Other speakers during the exercise included the National Assembly member for Kombo North, Honourable Pa Lamin Jatta, and Paramount Chief Demba Sanyang. While honourable Jatta described farming as one of the best methods in the crusade to eradicate hunger and poverty, the paramount chief maintained that going back to the land is the best solution to achieve the objective of ending household poverty.