A US$14 million livestock and horticulture development project was yesterday launched at the Sea View Hotel in Kololi.

The project is co-financed by the African Development Bank (ADB), the government of The Gambia and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The three-part project includes production, processing, marketing, capacity building and project management. It aims at increasing the production and productivity of livestock and horticultural produce on a sustainable basis in the Gambia. During this period, the activities of the project will include poultry production, small ruminants production, and horticultural production.
It is intended to benefit mainly the women and youths.

In his launching remarks, Bakary Trawally, permanent secretary at the ministry of agriculture, thanked donors for providing them with the necessary financial and technical support to successfully implement the project. He acknowledged the collective efforts of the donor agencies.
"In our bid to achieve our desired national objectives of eradicating poverty and increasing national food security through self-reliance, we wish to congratulate our international development partners for providing all the necessary financial and technical support," he said. According to him, six years ago, the APRC government under the leadership of Sheikh Professor Yahya Jammeh, brought to all Gambians, particularly women and youths in the Western and North Bank regions, a similar project for developing and promoting livestock and horticultural activities in the country.

Sait Drammeh, director of Agriculture at the Ministry of Agriculture, highlighted the creation of various department in the agriculture sector. He said this was done to facilitate the decentralization process of agricultural development in the country. According to him, his department is set to collaborate with the field unit of the Livestock and Horticultural Development Project (LHDP) to enhance the sustainability of the project. He spoke of the various components of the new projects.

Lamin Waaa Juwara, governor of the Lower River Region, expressed satisfaction with the current move of restructuring the sector. He assured the gathering of his region's full support in the decentralisation of agriculture. For his part, Dr Dosso Harouna, representative of the ADB mission, said they have constantly supported development actions geared towards poverty alleviation through food security programmes on the continent. He said the project would address the need to increase productivity in the agricultural sector and connect small holders (particularly women associations), to the rapidly expanding high-value horticulture and meat markets.

He said the ADB's revised agriculture strategy aims to promote the transformation of the agricultural sector from subsistence to commercial farming, strengthen the policy and regulatory frameworks and human capacity of its regional member countries, in order to take advantage of the huge potential of the sector for economic growth, development and poverty alleviation. The ceremony was chaired by Ebrima Camara, projects manager, Ministry of agriculture.