By Alhagie Babou Jallow & Jainaba Kargbo
Njawara Agricultural Training Centre in partnership with Action Against Hunger’s GREEN ECONOMY Project, through the EU-funded ‘Shaping a sustainable future through joint action’ project, recently organised a three-day Agro ecology training, for environmental stakeholders in the North Bank Region (NBR).The training focused on the concept note on ‘Support for the Agro-ecological transition in The Gambia’.
Agro ecology is an alternative to conventional or intensive agricultural practice that applies ecological and social concepts and principles to the design and management of food and agricultural systems.
The participants included Regional Livestock Owners Association, Maize Growers Association, and Marketing Federation SOLICITA, among others .
The ‘Shaping a sustainable future through joint action’ was initiated in North Bank with objectives of mitigating challenges related to climate change through promotion of a green economy based on agro ecology.
Mama Manneh, Executive Director of Njawara Agricultural Training Centre said the stakeholders’ engagement on agro ecology transition in the region is crucial; that it will help support farmers to adopt agronomic practices to enhance soil nutrients. The creation of NBR agro ecology platform, she said, will strengthen diversity, enable them speak common languages and reverse climate change.
Aladji Diack, Country Coordinator, Action Against Hunger, said the project is committed to supporting the country to improve food production through joint actions. He noted that farmers should promote the use of organic and backyard manure to enhance soil fertility and food production. “Despite the gains and successes of conventional and or intensive farming that is characterized by high external inputs and use of technology there has been grave consequences such as soil depletion, deforestation, biodiversity loss and high levels of greenhouse emissions among others,” she stated.
In the wake of the challenges in the food and agricultural system, agro ecology approach is considered relevant in restoring soil fertility, enhancing biodiversity, improving crop yields and animal husbandry, as well rehabilitating both landscape and seascape ecologies among others.
Wuri Jallow, lead consultant, said the establishment of agro ecology platform would contribute to synergised effort in mobilization of human and material resources . He calledon regional taskforce to be proactive and to create public awareness on best agro ecology practices.
The establishment of the platform will synchronise the different platforms into the Sustainable Land Management Program (SLMP) to avoid duplication of effort and embrace effective management of natural resources.
Corrective measures have become hard to succeed because of skills and knowledge gaps among farming populace. However is it evident that limited education and awareness programme on land use planning is one of the contributing factors to the accelerated degradation of land.
Adopting the agro ecology approach can be necessitated by the urgent need to transform food and agricultural systems as well as mainstream sustainable agriculture on a large scale. It seeks to address the root causes of problems in an integrated way and helps to provide holistic and long term solutions to these problems.
