The first harvest from The Gambia’s Vision 2016 Rice Project will hit the market by January 1, 2015, President Yahya Jammeh has assured his compatriots.
“I want to live by example, and I want to make sure that by the 1st of January 2015 this will be the first Vision 2016 rice harvested to enter the market for sale,” he said
President Jammeh gave the assurance in Jahally Pacharr in the Central River Region as he personally started harvesting the first phase of the Vision 2016 rice at the Jahally Pacharr rice field.
He expressed his satisfaction with the level of work already accomplished in Jahally Pacharr as part of his Vision 2016 food self-sufficiency drive, particularly in rice, the Gambia’s main staple food.
He expressed regrets that every year thousands of tonnes of rice, worth hundreds of millions of Dalasi, are imported and re-exported to the sub-region.
President Jammed underscored the importance of the achievement within a short period of time, adding that the first produce would be sold in the local market, and that mechanised harvesting would be applied in future to limit post-harvest losses.
“This is a very significant achievement, and you can see that the rice is very good and the fields are very vast,” President Jammeh said, adding that mechanised harvesting was necessary because “the fields are very big”.