By Fatou Saho
The Department of Livestock Service under the Ministry of Agriculture has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Gam United Breeders Association on Tuesday to foster collaboration.
The director at livestock service, Abdou Ceesay, said the ministry knows the potentials of small ruminants, and as such, wants to encourage its conservation in the Gambia.
Ceesay highlighted: “One of the key things that comes to mind when we talk about these breeds, is the fact that there is low productivity, and as much as we want to encourage the conservation of these breeds, we also know that relying on them alone would not help us meet the demands of rams, especially during the Tobaski feast. Government has put up strategies for encouragement of other breeds that are more productive. We have seen some of the proposals of GUBA and since then, we started working on those initiatives, one of which is to establish a good relationship between the association and the government through the Ministry of Agriculture department of livestock”.
The president of GUBA, Mustapha John, expressed gratitude to their new partner institution for its willingness to support such associations in the country. He commended GUBA members as excellent breeders who are all willing to work in the breeding industry to provide livestock services for breeding, consumption and other social events.
Mr John mentioned that, they have a number of initiatives that they want to roll out as an association which includes: healthcare for their members and food and nutrition for the animals.
“The other initiative which we put together is to support women breeders, to support youth and using technology to enhance animal breeding. We are excited that, we are able to deliver the first one which is animal health,” John stated.
He recognised GUBA members achievement of providing new motor bicycles for the work efficiency of their association’s Para veterans.
