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| toubab1020 |
Posted - 20 Jul 2018 : 15:30:49
"Abubacarr Jallow, Principal of Gambia College, said he is not that sure whether GMOs are the best alternatives for The Gambia, as he is skeptical on GMOs have an intensive training on its effects on small scale farming. The biotechnology he added, increase crop resistance on diseases and climate resistance; it’s a concern as we are in an era where climate change is a concern especially on agricultural productivity."
I think that MUCH MORE research is needed into the LONG TERM effects of what I consider inteferring with nature,loss of habitat for MANY creatures and Fauna.MONEY should NOT BE THE GOD.in the world created by GOD.
Friday, July 20, 2018
Stakeholders in the agriculture and food chain system were recently sensitised on the impact of bio-technology food productivity at the University campus, Brikama.
The event also attracted students pursuing agriculture at The Gambia College and the media. Agricultural biotechnology holds great promise to boost food production in both the developed and the developing world by reducing agricultural vulnerability to pests, viruses, and drought. It is also view as an important tool in the world’s quest to combat food insecurity and malnutrition.
Professor Dr. Paulo Paes de Andrade of Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE ), an expert in GMOs, who is the guest speaker, said the outreach programme is designed to promote Genetically Modified Crops GMOs solution for food productivity, improved yields, enhanced nutritional value, longer shelf life, and resistance to drought, frost, or insect pests.
While citing corn varieties containing a gene for a bacterial pesticide that kills larval pests, as examples of GM crops, Professor Paes de Andrade revealed that food Bio- Tech was adopted since 1996 and today USA is the lead with 75 million hectares followed by Brazil, Argentina, Canada and India.
‘It has contributed to food security, sustainability and climate change’.
The use of biotechnology, he said, should be a food risk assessment as new products are added for almost every human activity and respect prior on ideological basis.
“Science should be the basis of safety assessment. Every hazard coming from our heads should be considered and weighted using an adequate approach. Risk assessment agencies around the world and the science academics should be trusted, not internet as organisation in the world is making fault claims on Biotechnology, he further claims that scientist s has claim the other way round.”
He added: “The way to promote of biotechnology should be a political will; other countries there are against biotechnology there is no political to empower it,” he concluded.
Abubacarr Jallow, Principal of Gambia College, said he is not that sure whether GMOs are the best alternatives for The Gambia, as he is skeptical on GMOs have an intensive training on its effects on small scale farming. The biotechnology he added, increase crop resistance on diseases and climate resistance; it’s a concern as we are in an era where climate change is a concern especially on agricultural productivity.
“There are a lot of benefits to GMOs and there are people who spoke about the disadvantages, and as a developing country The Gambia is not fully ready to implement the use of Bio- Tech. There is a need of full acquired of knowledge on the GMOs to earnest the benefit, because if farmers are not able handle the crops it will fail and agriculture should be in large scale.”
He added that marginalized people voices must be respected because scientists deal with researches, adding that as far as the scientific evidence are concerns, the social perspective should be concerned.
“Communities in India, Brazil are suffering and having protest in the use of GMO. Poor farming abandons the low cost seeds and goes for high cost seeds it’s not beneficial to them.”
He raised concerns that the national multimillion companies should give the seeds free of charge for the benefit for the marginalized, noting that food production in the Gambia small scale farming is more productive than large scale farming.
“For commercial production large scale farming is beneficially as commercial production is limited to few people in the agricultural industries in the expense of the masses,” he added.
Author: Rose Zahra Gomez
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/stakeholders-sensitised-on-impact-of-biotech-food |
| 2 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| toubab1020 |
Posted - 20 Jul 2018 : 15:42:56
The Governments Thoughts :
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Press release
The Barrow administration has told farmers that measures are being instituted to do a comprehensive transformation of the country’s agriculture in the context of the National Development plan (NDP 2018-2021). Speaking at various meeting centers across the North Bank Region as part of the ongoing presidential nationwide tour, the Minister of Agriculture, Lamin N. Dibba, said the chronic problems of the country’s agricultural sector cannot be solved in piecemeal. Rather, a comprehensive all-inclusive strategy that cuts across different sectors will deliver a sustainable solution to the said problem.
Addressing concerns raised by farmers about the availability and cost of fertilizers, Minister Dibba said government will subsidize the cost of fertilizer by almost 70 percent to ease timely access. He announced that fifteen truckloads of fertilizers have already been dispatched for distribution to farmers. However, he was quick to warn farmers to be wary of middle men who would buy the fertilizers at subsidized price from the government and in turn resell the same to farmers at higher costs.
As part of the plan, the Hon. Ministers announced that the government would address the acute shortage of seeds and seedlings that farmers bemoaned at various places. He said the government would augment seed banks across the country to ensure adequate supply of seeds for farmers to use during the farming season. The Minister, however, urged the farmers to always put in place contingency measures that would ensure they never run out of seeds given that government may not be in a position to be providing seeds every year. He called on the farmers to consult with agricultural extension service workers to pick out and reserve the best part of their harvest for use the following season. He warned that time would come when government supplying seed supplies would only be limited to emergency situations such as crop failures.
Regarding the purchase of groundnuts, the minister said, going forward, the prices of groundnuts would be announced even before the harvest season starts while promising that the government would never venture into credit buying. “Gambia has the right international muscle to bring investors that will purchase nuts for exports, or create local avenues to access funds to purchase from farmers,” he added.
He said it saddens the new government that despite such a big potential in agriculture, the country’s youths were on massive outflow to Europe due to lack of employment opportunities. Dibba He urges them to be steadfast and be ready to be active participants in the rebuilding of the country, take advantage of the new opportunities being created here.
Agriculture is considered the backbone of the Gambia’s economy, provides employment for 70 per cent of the population, exports and foreign exchange earnings for the economy and food security for the citizens. That is why the infrastructure projects such as road networks, tourism master-plan and other sectoral strategies being implemented by the government will become key to this agricultural development plan.
Hon. Dibba advanced that there is a greater nexus between agriculture and other sectors of development which is why the government is adopting an all-inclusive integrated approach to development.
He outlined that stable power supply that is expanding across the country would also be crucial in the agro-processing and agricultural value chain. He encouraged the farmers to view agriculture as a potential commercial venture where processing and packaging would be the end product of their produce.
The minister said agriculture is a great foreign exchange earner for the country and such, government will support industries that will boost its potential for maximum benefits to the country.
The tourism sector is also a good consumer of horticultural products such as tomato, cucumber, carrots, salad, green pepper and cabbage. The same can be said of poultry and livestock products. The ministries of tourism and agriculture and drawing up an agreement to enable the producers supply the hotels directly. Such would reduce imports of the products that are grown here and create markets for the producers.
The agro-forestry sector is also given the utmost attention, the minister added. He explained that some wild fruits that are growing in our forests are so appetizing and healthy for consumers that they would be processed into juices and other products that can also be sold in supermarkets. In this way, products will be packaged, sold on supermarket shelves and consumed instead of just exporting as raw materials.
http://standard.gm/site/2018/07/20/agric-minister-outlines-plans-to-transform-agriculture/ |
| toubab1020 |
Posted - 20 Jul 2018 : 15:36:44
An Observation by The Author.
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Friday, July 20, 2018
“Agricultural production is the main economic activity in The Gambia but has declined throughout the 1990’s as a result of several factors including poor rainfall distribution, weak marketing infrastructure, lack of access to credit (especially for the youths and women) and a limited resource base,” Food and Agricultural organisation (FAO).
Today, Gambian agriculture is about to make a comeback, thanks to the efforts championed by the Adama Barrow government. We all know that agricultural production cannot be fully achieved if we only work in isolation. Our agriculture should be seen as a very valuable area by working with partners such as FAO, EU, China and the U.S. Embassy in Banjul, that’s championing biotechnology food production.
Agricultural biotechnology holds great promise to boost food production in both the developed and the developing world by reducing agricultural vulnerability to pests, viruses, and drought. It is also viewed as an important tool in the world’s quest to combat food insecurity and malnutrition.
According to FAO, generally, Gambian agriculture has been characterised by subsistence production of food crops, comprising cereals (early millet, late millet, maize, sorghum, rice), semi intensive cash crop production (groundnut, cotton, sesame and horticulture). Farmers generally practice mixed farming, although crops account for a greater portion of the production. The agricultural sector is characterized by little diversification, mainly subsistence, rain-fed agriculture with a food self-sufficiency ration of about 50%. The crops sub-sector generates approximately 40% of the foreign exchange earnings and provides about 75% of total household income. The crop-sub-sector employs 70 percent of the labour force, and accounts for 33% of GDP of the country.
We hope to see great improvement in our agriculture after government recently announced plans to transform the entire agricultural production.
It’s good to hear when government announces that it would address the acute shortage of seeds and seedlings that affects farmers across the country. During President Barrow’s Meet the Peoples’ Tour, farmers were urged to always put in place contingency measures that would ensure they never run out of seeds as government may not be in a position to be providing seeds every year.
FAO explains that agriculture is the key sector for investment to achieve long-term food security as well as reducing poverty levels as stated in Vision 2020 and the MDG’s. In order to achieve these goals, the agricultural sector needs to be transformed from subsistence farming to market oriented commercial enterprises. Comparative advantages of agricultural and human resources need to be made, emphasising productivity increases and competitiveness.
“Agriculture is not crop production as popular belief holds - it’s the production of food and fiber from the world’s land and waters. Without agriculture it is not possible to have a city, stock market, banks, university, church or army. Agriculture is the foundation of civilization and any stable economy.”
Allan Savory
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/agricultural-production-is-the-main-economic-activity-in-the-gambia |
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