The Gambia Second Generation National Agricultural Investment Plan-Food and Nutrition Security (GNAIP II-FNS).

This Second Generation National Agricultural Investment Plan originates from the ECOWAS and African Union support to realise agricultural transformation in African countries and to achieve a higher level of economic growth through agriculture-oriented development. Therefore, this Investment Plan constitutes the main investment framework for agricultural development in The Gambia in the medium term (2019-2026), by reflecting modernisation and transformation with the private sector as the major catalyst for growth and development in the sector, and aims at increasing food and nutrition security at household level, including for vulnerable households through increased Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) productivity based on sustainable use and management of natural resources in support of national goals of poverty reduction and improved livelihood. The Investment Plan identifies the following six priority areas concerning capacity building, youth employment and women empowerment: 1) Production and value chain promotion on food crops and vegetables sub-sector; 2) Production and value chain promotion on livestock husbandry and pastoralist sub-sector; 3) Production and value chain promotion on fishery and aquaculture sub-sector; 4) Production and value chain promotion on forestry and environment sub- sector; 5) Food and nutrition security, resilience, social protection; 6) Promote good governance of the whole agriculture and natural resources sector.
This Investment Plan is structured as follows: 1) Introduction, including: key macro-economic food and nutrition security indicators, origin and formulation of the Second Generation National Agricultural Investment Plan, the Plan formulation process, country’s basic strategy development Blue Prints. 2) Assessment of the first generation National Agricultural Investment Plan (NAIP), including: growth performance of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR), external effectiveness of NAIP, evolution of food and nutrition situation, governance of the agricultural, food and nutrition sector. 3) Strategic Guidelines for agro-forestry-pastoral and fisheries development, including: challenges and issues by priority area, agricultural development priorities, production and value chain promotion on various sub-sectors (food crops and vegetables, fishery and aquaculture, livestock husbandry and pastoralism, forestry and environment, food and nutrition security, social protection). 4) Climate Change adaptation, including detailed presentation of components of the 2016-2020 Plan. 5) Budget and Funding of the NAIP 2019-2026. 6) Implementation, monitoring and evaluation strategy. 7) Risks and Assumptions. 8) Economic and financial profitability of the Plan. 9) GNAIP II results framework. 10) General Conclusion.
This Investment Plan identifies the challenges for each priority area: investment, lack of viable credit and limited access to agriculture finance; soil fertility, erosion and low availability of fertilisers; limited youth participation in the agriculture value chain; saline water intrusion, intermittent flood and droughts; scarcity of fruit and vegetables production; improper packaging and labelling materials; weakness in public and private veterinary services; diseases and deficiencies of animal feed; lack of a livestock breeding policy; frequent disease outbreaks among small ruminants, cattle, poultry and pigs; inadequate availability of modern bee keeping and processing materials to farmers; uncontrolled use of inappropriate fishing gears and techniques and consequent overexploitation of the artisanal fisheries; reduction of reduce the Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) practices; lucrative coastal fisheries by foreigners; habitat degradation through pollution of the environment; uncontrolled post-harvest losses; unsustainable logging and harvesting practices of trees and fruits; recurrent bush fires damaging the forest cover; insufficiency of park facilities and infrastructure for optimal eco-tourism; absence of food security policy and sector strategy on food security; insufficient domestic food production. The Investment Plan’s development priorities include: rice, coarse grains, groundnuts, vegetables value chain and integrated pest management; livestock, poultry, small ruminants, beef and pigs value chain; livestock research; gender and youth perspectives; artisanal fisheries development; aquaculture and industrial fisheries; import and export and marketing of fish products; improvement of maternal nutrition and infant feeding; improvement of food and nutrition security and food standards, quality and safety; social protection measures; climate change adaptation; sustainable management of forest, trees and cultivated plants; minimising damages to forest resources; conservation of ecosystem and biodiversity.