By Fatou B. Cham
Mamour Alieu Jagne, Project Director of Resilience of Organisations for Transformative Smallholder Agriculture Project (ROOTS), in an interview about the Youth-based Matching Grant Scheme, explained that the Scheme targets two hundred and forty (240) youths across the country and that it is more about agri-business services rather than production, which he noted, is a very important distinction.
The Youth-based Matching Grant Scheme supports services that will facilitate production and minimise post-harvest losses. For instance it provides pest management services and ensure good quality seeds are provided to farmers.
About the level of participation in the Scheme, Mr Jagne explained that the first batch comprised of 39 beneficiaries, and that they are very far into the second batch, for which they are targeting 101 beneficiaries.
“We aim to do the award by June 2024 and that would take us to 140 out of the 240 as targeted,” he unveiled. He added that the mid-term review is looking into the possibility of extending that because of the impact it has both in the rural and the peri-urban areas.
Further on the benefits of the Grant, the Project Director revealed that in terms of food processing, they make sure beneficiaries have access to market for their vegetables and are provided power tillers for the land to be properly done for an increase in yield.
He went on: “We also provide tricycles for the fresh produced vegetables to be transported to markets or the storage stores since transport is a major constraint especially in the rural areas”.
He informed that the maximum amount that could be given to beneficiaries is USD 7,500 while the beneficiaries are expected to contribute 10% in cash and the project contributes 90%. “It can be an individual or a group of youths that could consist at most five people”.
Sheikh Tambedou, Native of Njoben, Misera Lower Fulladou West District, Central River Region South, a beneficiary of the Scheme revealed that he started his business after his return from Libya.
“I was first using a donkey cart to buy groundnuts and later sell them at the market, and then transport the women vendors from the market”.
He recalled that it was last year that the ROOTS Project handed the tricycle to him and since then he has been benefiting from it.
The ROOTS was launched on 09 February 2021, with co-funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the GEF Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), the French Development Agency (AFD), the Government of The Gambia and the Project’s beneficiaries.
The main goal of ROOTS is to improve food security, nutrition and resilience of Gambian smallholder farmers to climate change.
