Members of the National Assembly Select Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development are currently on a nationwide tour.

In the Central River Region, Alhaji Ganyie Touray, the governor of the region, received the delegation and hosted them for two days.  

According to Hon Sainey Mbye, National Assembly member for Upper Saloum, the tour is part of their duties, and is meant to survey the performance of crops in the country.
 
He noted that they have visited many farms where PIWAMP projects have been successful. He commended PIWAMP for their hard work.

Hon Mbye further added that the committee has discovered problems in some Visaca Banks where the manager lack managerial skills.

Hon Kebba Gaye, the secretary of the committee, commended the people of CRR for their hard work, noting that he was impressed by what he has seen in the region.
According to him, there will be a bumper harvest in the Central River Region and thanked PIWAMP for their intervention in building causeways preventing salt water intrusion into rice lands and for expanding the existing scheme.  

On the marketing of groundnuts, Hon Gaye said they will discuss with the private sector for the buying to start early as a bumper harvest is expected this year. If the buying of groundnuts has not started early enough, all the harvest will end up going to Senegal, he continued.

Hon Baba Nding KK Daffeh, the NAM for Kiang Central,  pointed out that the role of the NAMs is not only to legislate but also to scrutinise and take the Executive to task and to legislate their role at the grassroots.  

“Touring the country is one of those responsibilities, through which we can have firsthand information on the performance of the crops, constraints farmers face and solutions to some of the problems,” he said.

He also expressed concern about poor farming implements, stating that most of the tractors seen during the tour are not working but parked due to the lack of spare parts.
He finally thanked Governor Ganyie Touray for his untiring efforts to development in the region..