Gambia, December 2022

CARD Working Week for developing Concept Notes for NRDS2 and RSDS2 of The Gambia

In the Gambia, the National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS) and the Rice Seed Development Strategy (RSDS) were recently revised. In order to develop investment proposals (concept notes) for the implementation of the NRDS2 and RSDS2, a working week was held between 5^th and 9^th December 2022 at the conference hall of Khamsy’s training center in Bijilo. Participants representing the Ministry of Agriculture, Research Institutes and the Academia attended the working week. In order to prioritize the most effective and most urgent elements amongst an array of interventions options enumerated in the NRDS2 and RSDS2 documents, the participants scored the major interventions along the rice value chain and thus came up with six priority areas. Concept notes were then developed for each of the areas as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: List of Concept Notes

No	Title of projects
1	Strengthening  the capacity of NARI  on rice  research and establishment of bio-technology laboratory
2	Rehabilitation of  the existing rice irrigation schemes (pump and tidal)
3	Enhancement of post-harvest handling and Establishment of storage facilities
4	Strengthening the capacity of NSS on seed quality control and certification
5	Support for the establishment of mechanization hubs through PPP model
6	Strengthening the capacity of DoA extension agents

 

Key outputs/results

Through a participatory discussion, the task force members justified the reasons for prioritizing the above intervention areas in the rice value chain. The justifications are explained below.

1. Strengthening the capacity of the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) on rice research and the establishment of a Bio-technology and Agronomy Laboratories. The NARI has the mandate for rice breeding but currently lacks the needed personnel and infrastructures. Seed varieties suitable for the Gambia ecologies could be sourced from other research institutes within the West Africa region and beyond. However, there is an urgent need to build the capacity of staff as breeders and agronomists for future breeding activities in line with the mandate of the institute. In order to facilitate research activities, a new bio-technology and agronomic laboratories will need to be established and the existing ones rehabilitated to take care of the research materials.

2. Rehabilitation of existing rice irrigation schemes (pump & tidal). The existing irrigation schemes were developed in the 1980s, to provide services for farming activities during the dry season. Over the years the water delivery capacity has reduced due to increased land area and overuse. Currently there is difficulty in accessing irrigation water due to the dilapidated nature and the siltation of the canals. Also the access roads to the rice fields are in bad states and need to be rehabilitated. The task force therefore proposed that 23 irrigation schemes with access roads need to be rehabilitated in the rice producing regions of the country.

3. Enhancement of post-harvest handling and establishment of storage facilities. The current storage facilities in the various rice growing hubs are dilapidated and also lack modern processing facilities. These situations lead to post-harvest losses of close to 30%. Modern facilities will be provided for the cleaning of the paddy such as winnowers, moisture meters etc. The farmers will be provided with storage services at a cost. The availability of the storage facilities will reduce farm gate sales of paddy at harvest. Also, twenty-three storage stores will be established in the regions where irrigation facilities are rehabilitated.

4. Strengthening the capacity of the National Seed Secretariat (NSS) on seed quality control and certification. The NSS has the mandate for seeds inspection and certification. Currently the NSS has low human capacity in all the departments. The NSS will train more seed technologists, seed quality control officers and inspectors at degree level. A well-equipped modern seed testing laboratory will be established at the Headquarters and the existing one will be rehabilitated and upgraded.

5. Support for the establishment of mechanization hubs through a Public, Private Partnership (PPP) model. There is a limited access to mechanization among the farmers across the rice production regions. This low mechanization has led to the farmer’s inability to increase the areas of rice cultivation. The youths are not attracted to agriculture due to a high degree of drudgery, occasioned by low mechanization. Currently there is only one mechanization hub located in the Central River Region South (CRRS). The proposal is to establish 2 new mechanization hubs in the Central River Region North (CRRN), Upper River Region (URR) and additional one in CRRS. Establishment of these hubs will be facilitated by the government and managed through a Public, Private Partnership (PPP) model. The hubs will be equipped with production equipment such as mini tractors, trans planters, eco seeders and combined harvesters. The processing equipment will include threshers and mills of difference scales. Priority will be given to the small and medium mills. It is believed that establishment of these hubs will increase production areas as well as improve the quality of locally processed rice.

6. Strengthening the capacity of the Department of Agriculture’s extension agents. There exists a wide extension agent-to-farm ratio, resulting in ineffective and inefficient extension service delivery. Furthermore, there is the need to enhance the extension delivery services in order to improve the capacity of the farmers to augment rice production and productivity. As a result of the aforementioned challenges, the task force proposed that 20 and 25 extension agents will be trained in the universities to BSc and MSc degrees respectively. A continuous in-house training will be organized for the District Extension Supervisors (DES) in order to boost their knowledge in good agricultural practices in rice production.

As a way forward after the workshop, the participants agreed to finalize the concept notes. The RSDS2 will be validated in February 2023; thereafter the NRDS focal point will solicit funding from stakeholders in order to organize the launching of the two documents, NRDS2 and RSDS2, by the first quarter of 2023.