PIWAMP Holds Annual Consultative Meeting‏

Held at the Rural Agricultural Farmers Training Centre in Jenoi, Lower River Region, from 16th to 17th March, the 2011 annual consultative meeting brought together the project staff, service providers, and project beneficiaries to reflect over the 2011 activities and come up with sound recommendations to ensure improved delivery.

Asheme Cole, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, informed the gathering that the government of The Gambia is looking for seeds to farmers following the mass crop failure in the 2010-2011 farming season.

Pointing out that the newly appointed Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Solomon Owens, since his appointment, on 1st March 2012, has been trying immensely to bolster the agricultural sector in the country.

“This forum is an open forum, therefore, you need to participate actively and if you don’t speak now tomorrow if anything happen in the project you should not put your blame on PIWAMP but yourselves,” Cole emphasized.

Mr. Momodou L. Gassama, PIWAMP Project Coordinator, told the forum that the project implementation in 2011, despite some constraints, had been very successful especially in the watershed development and capacity building component.

He informed the meeting about the Sustainable Land Management Project (SLMP), which is a component ofPIWAMP and has one of its key objectives to establish national and regional SLM secretariats that will harmonise and coordinate all land management issues.

He said already a national coordinator, assisted by two field coordinators have been appointment.He explained that these people will be responsible for the coordination of all SLM activities in collaboration with the Agricultural Regional Directorates.

The 2011 annual consultative meeting was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, Global Youth Innovation Network – The Gambia,Upland and Lowland Field Coordinators, among others.