President Barrow urges youths and women to take advantage of opportunities ROOTS provide, as he launches the $80Million project
At the laughing of the resilience of organisation for transformative smallholder agriculture (roots) project, President Barrow challenges the youth and women, farmers, to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the project to upgrade their economic status.
The $80 million project funded by the International Fund for Agriculture Development, is meant to improve food security, nutrition and smallholder farmer’s resilience to climate change in The Gambia. Additionally, the project seeks to increase agricultural productivity and access to markets for enhanced food security and nutrition, and resilience of family farms and farmer organisations.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we should remind ourselves that the ROOTS project specifically targets women and youths for effective and profitable participation in rice and vegetable value chains,” he noted.
He added that the ROOTS project offers significant openings for the youths and women to perform optimally as champions of development and economic growth.
Acknowledging the challenges faced by the agriculture sector and the vulnerability of the country to the effects of climate change, the President expressed his government’s commitment to supporting and promoting initiatives for climate change adaptation and resilience.
He commended his Cabinet and the National Assembly for swiftly endorsing and ratifying what he described as ‘worthy initiative’.
