By Fatou B. Cham
Think Mina Media, a PR Marketing and Advertising firm, recently paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Security.
The PR marketing and advertising firm has been contracted by the Ministry of Information to provide documentaries for all the government ministries from 2017 to date.
Speaking on the occasion, Hon. Dr. Demba Sabally, Minister of Agriculture applauded the Ministry of Information for contracting young and talented Gambians to carry out this project.
“Your task here is to show what has been done. At the Ministry of Agriculture, currently we have about 8 projects with a combined portfolio of about two hundred and twenty-five million USD,” he said.
These projects according to the Minister are: the ROOTS Project, Girav Project, GAFSP, RVCTP, RRVCTP, SRPEEP Project, Social Fertility Mapping, and KR RICE PROJECT.
The KR project, he explained, will be developing rice seed complexes in CRR South. He said it is about a special high-yielding seed that they have introduced and is producing up to eight tons per hectare. “Currently, The Gambia’s production is less than 4 tons per hectare but this Korean ton had almost 100% double our productivity,” he unveiled.
Explaining the Social Fertility Mapping initiative, the Minister said is geared towards helping farmers understand the fertilizer need. He said currently farmers are putting 4 bags of NPK and two bags of Urea for every hectare - almost standardised practice from Banjul to Basse.
“What we have realised is that not every farmer needs to do the same thing, and soil fertility can differ from one region to another. So what the project will do is to guide the farmers to understand the type of fertilizer they need. If you are in the West Coast Region what you may need to apply might be different from that of CRR North,” he said. The Minister informed the team that the project is a three-year project funded by the Islamic Development Bank and is about 1.3 million USD.
He added that the project will also equip NARI with a modern lab where they can do soil testing in The Gambia instead of sending soil samples to Senegal.
Zainab Hydara from the Think Mina affirmed that the Ministry of Information has tasked her team to work with nine ministries including the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Security, on projects that they are implementing to be showcased to the outside world.
She underscored the importance of their visit and meeting with the teams to understand the stories that should be portrayed.
