Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, President of the Republic of The Gambia, yesterday, received in audience Dr Jacques Diouf, the director general of the United Nations Food and Agircultural Organistions [FAO], in his office at State House, Banjul.

Speaking to journalists shortly after having audience with the Gambian leader, Dr Jacques Diouf said his visit to State House was meant to review the agricultural situation in The Gambia, Africa and the world as a whole, as the world is currently faced with global food crisis.

"We have initiated a programme of support for access to seeds, fertilizers, animal feed etc,” he said, and he added: “we are assisting the Gambia government in preparing a certain number of programmes and projects for the medium and long-term. And we are also working hard to ensure that the spirit of the South-South co-operation is realised", Dr Diouf stated.

The FAO director general further revealed that the FAO will continue to bring to the attention of the international community the commitment they made in June at the high level conference, which was confirmed by the commitment made in Japan during the G8 Summit, again re-confirmed during the UN General Assembly in September, in New York and still, during the World Bank, IMF committee meeting in Washington.

"We have to make sure that these commitments are sustained; we need the media to raise awareness on the fact that we still have the food crisis despite the fact that prices went down from July 2008.

They are still 50% above the level of 2008," Dr Diouf observed.
"Developed countries, in response to high prices, saw their cereal production increased by 9.9%.  During the same period, for the developing countries, we saw an increase of only 0.9%.

And if we exclude China, India, Brazil  and South Africa from the group of developing countries, the other ones show a decrease in production of 1.5%. So we are in crisis. We need 30 billion dollars to eradicate hunger from the face of the earth," the FAO director general highlighted.

He revealed further that in 2007, the number of hungry people increased by 75 million instead of decreasing by 41 million in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Dr Diouf expressed delight at meeting President Jammeh, saying that their discussion was fruitful. He described the Gambian leader as an experienced agriculturist whose aim is to ensure that The Gambia becomes food self-sufficient in the shortest possible time.

"President Jammeh was able to plan to make sure that stocks of rice are available before the food crisis started and that is why The Gambia was able to manage the situation.

 President Jammeh is committed to agriculture and he has leadership commitment which is a fundamental element at the FAO. We are happy to discuss with such an experienced man," he remarked.

Prior to his audience with President Jammeh, Dr Diouf also paid courtesy call on Aja Dr Isatou Njie-saidy, vice-president and secretary of state for women’s affairs.

He told reporters that his discussion with the vice president was centred on the agricultural situation in The Gambia as well strategies that could be taken to assist Gambian farmers.

"We saw that the share of agriculture in overseas development assistance go down from 17% to 13% in 1998 and then to 3% only in 2006, which means that the resources that should go to agriculture has decreased," he said.

Dr Diouf finally called on all countries across the world to give special attention and support to agriculture.

The FAO director-general was later seen off at the Banjul International Airport by senior government officials, staff of the department of state for Agriculture, FAO officials in The Gambia, among others.