Speaking to The Standard over the weekend in Basse, Alhaji Omar Sompo-Ceesay said: “We have very good schemes – over four irrigated schemes – that we have started since 2013 and they are yielding very well. So come December [2014], there will be another rice harvest in this region. We are working very hard and are expecting to be there in 2015. I am optimistic that Vision 2016 will be attained fully in URR. With regard to groundnuts, we are expecting a bumper harvest because we are privileged to have enough rains but with late millet, there are problems, honestly.”
He added: “Concerning Vision 2016, you can see for yourself how prepared this region is. We have been adhering to President Jammeh’s call well before. In URR, we have been working very hard with regard to food self-sufficiency. Food is not a problem in URR. However, this season it is alarming to see that in some parts of the country there is a shortfall of rains. Some of our crops are affected but we are working on a strategy on how to maintain the food we have. We are encouraging farmers because harvesting has started.
“I have cautioned the Department of Agriculture through their regional directorate that they need to host radio talk shows concerning the produce we are collecting so that they could be saved otherwise there are people who normally come to this country to our lumo, buy everything and later bring [the consumables] back to our people to resell. We do not want to accept such things this year. We have put in place mechanisms to avoid such a situation like in the past. What is produced here must remain here and consumed in this country. We had a meeting were we call all the secco presidents and their committee members and we encouraged them at the meeting to mobilise their farmers and discourage them from selling their groundnuts to outsiders.”
The regional governor said because of the “great job” being done by President Jammeh, his regime and party, in the 2016 presidential elections, the APRC will make a clean sweep of the polls.
“There is no politics in URR as of today and come 2016 elections, there will be no elections. I do not think the opposition will even dare to come to URR because they know what is going on in URR. They will not waste their resources in URR seeking votes. URR remains loyal to President Jammeh 100 percent,” he said.
]]>
