The first ROOTS site visited was Bintang Onion curing facility . this intervention was through the CRI. According to Borry Marr a beneficiary of the facility, the facilty is very useful to them. She said the importance of the facility can not be over emphasized. We had a bumper harvest but the issue they were having was where to keep their onion, after curing, they keep them in their houses and many got spoiled. She used the opportunity to appeal to the Hon Minister for them to supported with a cold store to keep their oinion until prices are good in the market.
Acoording to Mamour Alieu Jagne the ROOTS Project Director, ROOTS started collaborating with Bintang since the RPSF intervention four to five years ago. He said the visit today is about the onion curing facility, the foundation stone of which was laid by the Honourable Minister who even influence the change of location to the current place. We are happy that ROOTS facilitated the sold of your onions and we apologies for the spoilage. We will join hands to prevent such situations next year. You are hard working women and we are proud of the community, he encourage them to continue their hard work.
For Honourable Omar Darboe chair of the National Assembley select committee for Agriculture and Rural Development, they are happy with what they see. He added that usually it is the contractors who delays project’s work but he is happy with contractor for the onion curing who delivered on time. He said their work is monitoring to see if projects are implemented as planned. The facility reduces the amount of time women spend in curing their onions manually and it also safes them from drudgery involve. He concluded that government’s focus is to reduce the drudgery in agriculture to entice the youths to embark on farming.
The Honourable Minister in delivering his remarks apologies to the women for their onion that got spoiled due lack of stores. He said the onion curing facility provided by his ministry through ROOTS can cure up to 2tons daily. He responed to their appeal for a store saying other project directors are in the tour and has taken note of it. He added that the beneficiaries stated need for a cold store but government’s thinking is how to support them market their produce in the shortest period with out storing in a cold store. He said his visit was to see that the facilty is completed but also to listen to their challenges. As government’s priority is self sufficiency in rice production within the next five years therefore their focus will not only be onion but rice also. He concluded that they will empower farmers to achieve food self sufficiency
Second and final ROOTS site visited for the was Bondali in Foni a beneficiary of the ROOTS Subsidized input Support Programme for Rice. The community benefitted from 10ha input support last year and has increased it to 15ha this year. According to the chief of Bondali District Modou Colley, the fields ROOTS intervened at were abandoned for two decades. He said ROOTS revive this fields and last year the women had a lot of rice there. The five communities that benefitted last year some are still eating their last year harvest. He added that the ROOTS support was a package comprising ploughing services, certified seeds, fertilizer and herbicides and everything came on time. Because of the gains of these communities this year other communities within the district who had not benefitted are also requesting to be part of it next year. He concluded by thanking the ROOTS PD and his team particularly the WCR Team. Abdou Manga said ROOTS has removed drudgery from our production, it has increased our savings as the amount of rice buy has dropped significantly and the savings made is been spent on other household needs. He said ROOTS has taken them from level 1 to level 5, he added that next year they will do 50ha. He appealed for machinery support so they could increase their production size. He said machines will encourage youths to venture into farming and forget the back way. He also appealed for a storage facility and tricycles to transport their harvest from the rice fields to homes. Other speakers including Fatou Tamba and Mariama Jarju re echoed similar sentiments and appealed for thresher.
According to the ROOTS PD, the project is a government project under the ministry of Agriculture launched by His Excellency the President Adama Barrow with the goal of attaining food self sufficiency. He said the project is happy with they see on the ground and what they hear from the community.
The Honourable Minister in responding to the appeals promised the community a combine harvester, he added that P2P2RS will look into the conditions of their rice field for a possible solution canal barriers. He said with regards to the tricycle request ROOTS will take care of once a formal request is received through the RCU. For the tractor request he said this will be last year for the community to hire the services of tractor, they will get their own next year. He said the ROOTS subsidized input support for rice is extended to 92 communities across the country. He thanked the ROOTS team for their commitment to work. The tour will continue to LRR tomorrow.
