As part of the ROOTS project in Gambia, the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and the French Development Agency have signed a grant agreement of €7 million (US$8 million) to help implement the “Resilience of Organizations for Transformative Smallholder Agriculture.”
The goal of the initiative in West African country is to improve food security, nutrition, and smallholder farmers’ ability to adapt to climate change.
The project, according to IFAD, aims to increase agricultural productivity, improve agricultural goods’ access to markets, and expand assistance for small farms and farmer groups.
Beyond the AFD award, ROOTS has an overall cost of US$80.59 million and is funded by the IFAD, the OPEC Fund for International Development, the Global Environment Fund, and the Gambia’s government, as well as recipients themselves (US$6.25 million). This includes the AFD grant.
The second source of funding in the amount of $20.6 million will be found. Moreover,70 percent of the country’s population is employed in agriculture, although it only produces 24 percent of GDP.
Food insecurity and malnourishment in rural areas are directly linked to a lack of agricultural output that disproportionately impacts women and children.
The Gambia, where the experiment is taking conducted, has a high level of food insecurity and is heavily reliant on food imports.
According to the national rice development policy published in 2014, despite being a basic crop, just 17 percent of the rice consumed annually comes from domestic production.
Government priority on rice sector development and the goal of the National Development Plan is to achieve self-sufficiency in rice which justify their drive due to low rate of rice coverage for national needs.
The initiative will be executed in the five rural districts of The Gambia and will reach 40,000 agricultural households, a total of 320,000 people, to address these significant food security concerns (14 percent of the population). The Gambia received €50 million (US$57 million) from France in February 2018 at the International Donors’ Conference in Brussels.
The AFD’s grant portfolio in The Gambia now stands at € 32.5 million (US$37.5 million) as a result of this investment. By reaffirming France’s commitment to its Gambian partners, this extra initiative aligns with Gambia’s government aims.
Recently, Gambia got $1.5 million from the Japanese government, which was meant to help 40,000 people who were at risk of not getting enough food through the World Food Program. To help with moderate acute malnutrition, WFP will give pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers fortified blended foods. It will also help mothers with HIV.
WFP will also help with nutrition education and awareness-raising to help caregivers, mothers, adolescent girls, households, and community leaders learn more about how to feed their families in the best way possible.
