The looming global food crisis may hit a record 1 billion people, as the latest statistics indicate an addional overwhelming 100 million have been already endangered. This has brought the total number of people who go to bed hungry everyday from 854 million to 954 million.

According to Alhagie Kebbeh, the president of the African Youth Coalition Against Hunger (Aycah), who is also the director of the National Youth Association for Food Security (Nayafs) this trend is alarming and there is an urgent need for proportionate and pragmatic moves to avert the crisis.

“This is unacceptable since the world has enough to feed its inhabitants,” he said, noing that the food crisis is compounded by the introduction of the bio-fuel, which is responsible for 75 per cent of the crisis.

The way forward

In The Gambia, according to Kebbeh, this can be curbed by cultivating the vast arable lands which are left lying fallow.

“We have about 300,000 hectares of arable land in fallow. We have utilised about 200,000 hectares. This is utilised for only three months in a year. Also, we are only using 2 per cent of the available underground water, and half of our river is fresh water. This means that we don’t even need pump irrigation, but spiral irrigation for more cultivation,” he said.

Kebbeh, who is the chairman of the National Youth Council, pressed the need for Gambians to use this opportunity to cultivate more food crops so that the country can rapidly move towards food self-sufficiency.

The Aycah and Nayafs boss also suggested the need for a holistic national food strategy to curb the crisis. The objective of this strategy, he said, would be to attain sustainable food security by 2015, adding that the government also needs to set up a high level food security council that will compose of key stakeholders, including the private sector, to map out strategies that would ensure the attainment of food security.

“When we have the national food strategy, we will look at what comparative economical system we have in our country, especially where we can produce more. We can cultivate a wide range of land with a variety of foodstuff that will go a long way in the attainment of food self-sufficiency,” he added.

Mr Kebbeh also expressed a need for a heavily subsidised agricultural sector and urged the young people to play their role by responding to the president’s call for people to go back to the land.  

“Young people can earn income for themselves by investing in agriculture,” he said, emphasising the need for appropriate measures to entice young people to agriculture.

Eat what you grow

On the eat-what-you-grow concept, Mr Kebbeh raised concern about the attitude of Gambians towards local produce. He urged the people to eat what they grow locally and patronise what is produced locally. He then observed that failure to heed this call undermines efforts for the country to be self-reliant in feeding itself.

He noted that most of the rice sold in the local shops are 50 per cent to 75 per cent broken, which, he said, are by-products grown in foreign countries. He also observed that the country has moved to a stage of consuming imported vegetables, stressing that this should not be promoted since vegetables are grown in abundance in the country.

In conclusion, the Aycah boss highlighted that The Gambia has the possibility of feeding itself if its citizens are ready to work for it and called for collective efforts to end the dependency on imported foodstuffs.

Youth activism is nothing new in this country. And there are so many youth organizations in the Gambia that even the National Youth Council itself cannot afford to account for them all. But there are those that have been able to make so much impact that, one finds it difficult not to remember them. Among them are those that engaged in real activism. By that I mean activism against the injustices meted against poor countries like the Gambia, by countries that are supposed to give us a helping hand in our stride to rid ourselves of the bondage of poverty. One such organization is AYCAH.
 
The acronyms, AYCAH, stand for Africa Youth Coalition Against Hunger. It is a sub- continental organization that was founded in April, 2006, in Dakar, the capital city of Senegal. AYCAH-Africa was founded by inspired African youths across the continent, who are very conscious of the fact that Africa was less economically and productively independent. The woes of this continent seem permanent, despite the abundance of raw minerals in its soil, the rich fertile lands it has for agricultural ventures, the highly rated, quality pool of intellectuals and experts it is giving birth to on a daily basis, particularly in the youth sector.

The world has come to realize that this omen this continent faces have also got to do with the under privileged situation it found it self in, thanks to the unequal treatments it receives from international organizations (bodies) to the advantages of the other parts of the world (developed world). This couples with the prevalence of civil conflicts.

AYCAH-Africa spread its arms in eleven African countries, including the Gambia. It focuses primarily on effort to combating hunger, poverty, and arm conflicts, high rate of youth unemployment, HIV/AIDS, amongst others.

AYCAH-Gambia is like any other structure of the main body (AYCAH-Africa), established in the eleven African countries to serve as branch and officially mandated to represent the regional body. The Gambia’s chapter participated in the first ever-continental youth conference against hunger, which was held from the 10th to 17th April 2005, in Banjul, The Gambia. It was during this conference that the idea of AYCAH was conceived and given birth to, a year later, at the Dakar conference, in April 2006.

Although, after the Banjul conference, many Gambians were enlighten and realized the dangers in the on going growth of hunger and arm conflicts, a little progress was made on the realization of AYCAH's objectives as no single structure was officially put in place or mandated to take charge at the country level at the time.
 
Purpose of formation

Although, as stated above, The Gambia has over the years experienced an unusual proliferation of youth organizations, quite a little effort had been directed in the area of food security and the fight against hunger. Until the formation of AYCAH, the fight against hunger and food security in The Gambia had received a joint attention from the youth sector, despite the fact that a greater number of people are conscious of the implication of the scourges of the problem. Indeed, many people have actually gone as far as conceiving the idea of fighting against hunger and ending armed conflicts in Africa, but apparently all their effort just went down drain, rendering their wish mere dreams. Orientation, sensitization, as well as resource mobilization strategies for the fight are either in short demand of or non-existent.

The strategy AYCAH intends to employ in an effort to attaining its objectives is to work in solidarity and in partnership with the poor and the marginalized people, facilitate them to defend their interest and control the productive and social resources necessary to secure their human rights and entitlements. At the same time, it aims at creating an approach to development that does not create new poverty. The strategy would focus on information dissemination, capacity building, lobbying, as well as to equip people with knowledge on the impact of IFI, the impact of trade liberalization, EPAs, etc..

If you want to reach them, you can simply try:

The national co-coordinator

Africa Coalition Agianst Hunger

C/O The National Youth Council

Independence Stadium

Bakau.  Tel. 9781067

Activista is an internationally sanctioned campaign forum with membership in a number of countries around the globe. Its expressed mission is to fight against the most persistent of human scourges, hunger.

A coalition of organizations championed by the world’s formidable youth organisations, Actavista, an Action Aid network of students and young people across rich and poor countries, seeks to address core issues responsible for the causes of hunger, especially in the developing world, the most affected by hunger. A hunger-free world is the common language.

Brazil, The Gambia, Italy, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Thailand, and the UK are currently the countries in the lead on this global campaign. And in The Gambia, the Africa Coalition Against Hunger (AYCAH), is spearheading the campaign. Through support from Action Aid The Gambia AATG, this youth organisation recently organised a four-day training session for junior and senior secondary students across the country to, in their words, sensitise them on the causes of the scourge. The workshop was held in the village of Jenoi, LRR.

The training session focused on practices that restrict access to land by our women folks, the leading force behind food production on the continent. As future leaders, the organizers argue, these students are the most appropriate group to target, given that they will be taken over the mantle of leadership, as they will have gotten an insight on the effect of the repressive attributes of our cultural heritage, which will allow them make genuine judgement, With special emphasis on empowering the women for increased agricultural production.

It could be recalled that Action Aid had unveiled its campaign last year. With AYCAH as one of its major partners in the global fight, they conceived the idea of training core volunteers whom they will be working with in the course of the campaign. The session, which ran from Thursday 29th to Saturday 31st, brought together two students each, from 12 schools, 2 schools from each region (regions 1-6). A series of presentations, from   the role of school education in agricultural development to the role of the media in the campaign, amongst others, were delivered.

A representative of the country director of AATG, Dr Kujejatou Manneh, hailed the organizers for the initiative, describing it as timely. On behalf of her director, Madam Jainaba Nyan-Njie reiterated the significance in involving the youth, the world over, in the fight against hunger. She disclosed to the participants that a staggering 854 million people go to bed hungry everyday. This, she said, was the basis of their motivation and the reason for them initiating the campaign.

The regional education director for the area, region 4, Mr Modou Touray, described as unacceptable, revelation that a child dies every 5 seconds from hunger. In his short speech, Mr Touray sought to establish a link between agriculture and education, emphasizing that the former was a top priority for his department. While promising his directorate’s unflinching support for the campaign, he recognized the need for acquiring knowledge and skills as the best means of “breaking the ice.”

The coordinator of AYCAH Gambia, Sanna Bah, called for collectiveness if “we are to be effective in our mission.” “Hunger-free Africa is what AYCAH is all about”, posited Mr Bah. And he went on, “the core volunteers are the life blood of this campaign.” As the session proceeded, the AYCAH coodinator interrupted it with a breaking news, quoting the UN as saying that “the long era of cheap food are over.” Apparently, that was a vivid reminder of the uphill task that awaits the campaigners.

On his presentation, the food right manager, Action Aid The Gambia, Mr Buba Khan, delved on the need for teamwork. Understanding hunger and its causes, he said, is a crucial tool in fighting it. His presentation centred on these, with specific references to the Gambia.

The right to food for the people, Mr Khan went on, is incumbent on all government the world over. His presentation touched on key issues including food security and food sovereignty as well as empowerment of women, vis-à-vis their ability in food production. The Action Aid food right manager argued that a threat to food security anywhere is a treat to national security, citing Senegal, Haiti, Cameroon, etc., as examples of countries whose citizens earlier on went on the rampage, for lack of the basic food stuffs, thanks to the souring if prices. 852 million people worldwide, Mr Khan disclosed, are under nourished. He said that the bulk of that figure, 815 million people, are found in developing countries.

What turned out to be a striking revelation during the session was that only 6% of the population of the United State of America was responsible for the feeding of that country. And report has it that even if that fraction of the US agrarian community ceases cultivation, they can still feed the whole world for a whole 6years, without any shortage. But that record food production is under threat by the immoral human want of worldly life. We now have food for fuel, instead of food for human consumption. However, as for Mr Khan, Activista is a means of changing the attitude of Africans towards agriculture, thus rendering the effect of food for fuel neglible.

Mr Buba Sowe, the agricultural education officer at the department of state for Education, coordinated the whole program from the part of the department. He chose to hip all the blame on the colonial education system we inherited. He however called for emphasis on both the theoretical and practical aspect of agriculture, rather than stressing on only theory, as has been the case in not only the Gambia but the whole of Africa. Mr Sowe assured the gathering that the latest education policy takes care of all the problems the sector is encountering.

Jainaba Nyan-Njie, the Women’s right manager at Action Aid The Gambia, expounded on the role of the media in the fight against hunger.

The workshop, which lasted for three days, concluded with a group work and presentations of a plan of action for the core volunteers in the next 7 months.

Watch out for more reports in our subsequent issues.