Progebe Gambia Chapter launched

The Regional Project on Sustainable Management of Endemic Ruminant Livestock in West Africa (PROGEBE) national chapter was last Thursday launched at an inception workshop at the Tendaba Camp, Lower River Region.
 
The aim of the workshop was to improve visibility (sensitisation and marketing), help promote an efficient mobilisation of all stakeholders around the project to ensure success. The project was conceived through the willingness of the participating states - The Gambia, Guinea, Mali and Senegal -; the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the African Development Bank (ADB), acting as funding agencies to promote the development of Trypanotolerant livestock breeding on a sustainable basis.

Being a regional project, it has a Regional Co-ordination Unit (RCU) hosted in the premises of the International Trypanotolerance Center (ITC) at Kerr Serign in The Gambia. The project is aimed at preserving and strengthening the genetic characteristics of endemic ruminant livestock on a sustainable basis, increase their productivity and improve marketing in a favourable institutional environment.

In The Gambia, as in all four participating countries, the project will intervene in five administrative districts called intervention sites, namely Kiang West, Niamina East and Nianija as primary sites, and Kombo East and Sami as secondary sites. Some 116 and 101 villages with corresponding human population of 42,325 and 47,170 in the primary and secondary sites respectively will be involved and covered in the project over the six-year duration.

Dr Famara Sanyang, national co-ordinator of the project, gave a detailed background of the aims and objectives of the project, describing it as laudable. He noted that it is expected that the project will contribute to the strengthening of food security and poverty reduction by achieving a 38 per cent increase in meat production and 30 per cent of milk production.

According to him, the National Co-ordinating Unit (NCU) will work in partnership with local  and international partners based on their areas of expertise. He described the inception workshop as a great moment for communication and sharing of ideas with all national stakeholders on the objectives, strategies and program activities as per the respective project documents to promote the necessary synergy.

He saluted the government of The Gambia for its support and urged participants to ensure that the project is a success. Welcoming delegates to his region, Momodou Soma Jobe, the governor of the Lower River Region, said the significance of the project cannot be over emphasised. According to him, this intervention is very timely as the world is grappling with the current global food crises coupled with abject poverty, disease and malnutrition.

He observed that this project will contribute immensely to government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy-PRSP II, the Vision 2020 and that it will as well be a catalyst in the attainment of the hunger, poverty and health-related Millennium Development Goals. He said that at the national and regional levels, there is urgent need for animal production to be promoted on a sustainable basis. "The daily slaughtering of livestock in all towns and cities in The Gambia indicates that there is a gradual reduction of the animal population in The Gambia. Therefore, there is an urgent need to replenish stock lost mainly through slaughtering for home consumption,” he said.

He then expressed hope that the project will contribute immensely to the strengthening of food security, reduction of poverty at the household, regional and national levels by the target date of 2013. Governor Jobe then thanked the project management team for using sound criteria for the selection of intervention sites and urged that they consider the establishment of daily diary plants at strategic locations in the intervention sites to increase the income of farmers and reduce the incidence of middleman buying. He also saluted the Gambian leader under whose leadership such development projects are being implemented as well as the funding agencies.

Dr Momodou Mustapha Jaw, regional co-ordinator of the project, described the project as a challenging one. According to him, this is the first project for endemic ruminants in West Africa for four countries. He urged people to understand their roles and responsibilities within the scope of the project, noting that livestock professionals and breeders as well as local authorities have a great role to play in making the project a success.

Officially launching the project, Baboucarr Trawally, permanent secretary at the Department of State for Agriculture, confirmed that since the advent of the Jammeh administration, Gambians witness the launching of a project in agriculture every two months. He said this project has come at a right time, noting that the National Assembly, in November 2008, passed the Livestock and Marketing Act, which, he noted, will not only promote marketing but control as well.

He recognised the presence of women at the launching, noting that they have a key role to play in the implementation of the activities. He reiterated the importance of ownership, saying "we should not allow the disappearance of the project at the end of the duration. Let us continue the practice. Own the project and ensure that we sustain it." He also asserted his department’s continued support.Dr Babou Jobe, director general of NARI, chaired the launching ceremony.