By Amadou Jadama on tour
The chief of defence staff of the Gambia Armed Forces, Lt General Yakuba Drammeh, has vowed that the army is ready to venture into agriculture to help achieve food self-sufficiency, once they get support from the Ministry of Agriculture.
CDS Drammeh was speaking at the GAF gardens in Banjulinding as part of his ongoing tour of military facilities and personnel across the country. He revealed that the army has over the years recorded successes in sectors like education, health and engineering and is now ready to accord similar emphasis on agriculture in line with its constitutional mandate.
“Let us ask ourselves why we as a nation could not achieve our targets of food self-sufficiency. So it will not be out of context if we decide to go into agriculture. Yes we should have started earlier, but now I believe we can get ourselves into agriculture with the necessary support from the Ministry of Agriculture giving their vast experience and expertise,” CDS Drammeh said.
The army chief pointed out that the army is blessed with the human resources to carry on the task of feeding the nation.
“This is why I believe we have to lean on the Ministry of Agriculture to provide us with the skills and expertise,” CDS Drammeh added.
“I think it is in order for the army to venture into agriculture because at the end of the day we are going to serve the wider interest of the Gambian people to achieve what we set for ourselves in terms of meeting the food demand of this country,” he stated.
