Africa

Africa: Agric. Minister Launches the African Emergency Food Production Facility


The Minister for Agriculture, Hon. Dr. Demba Sabally, on Friday 23 September 2022 launched the African Emergency Food Production Facility (AEFPF) supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to The Gambia through the Rice Value Chain Transformation Project (RVCTP).

The AEFPF is an additional financing that follows the joint meeting of the ministers of Agriculture and of Finance of the African Union on the African Emergency Food Production plan in which The Gambia participated.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Dr. Sabally informed the gathering that the government of The Gambia is taking major strides to transform the Agriculture sector in addressing food security and meeting the nutritional needs of its people.

“Despite these efforts, The Gambia’s high dependence on imports for staple and key commodities has deepened the country’s vulnerability to external shocks such as the effect of Covid-19 and the impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis on the food supply system” he stressed.

He elaborated that the AEFPF is the African Development Bank’s newly approved rapid response framework to address the food crisis and distribution of the supply of critical inputs for food production arising from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Having been aware of the existence of this facility, Dr. Sabally stated that the government of The Gambia requested additional financing under the African Emergency Food Production Facility to mitigate the effects of the external shocks and enable the government to meet the country’s food production for 2022 and 2023.