Food crisis prompts Gambia emergency cabinet session today
Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has summoned his cabinet to an emergency meeting today, Monday to discuss the developing food crisis, after his country appealed for food aid due to crops failure.
According to Gambia’s Agriculture Ministry, 70% of crops failed during the last farming season.
Jammeh is quoted by the Gambian Daily Observer newspaper as saying that the meeting would address the imminent food crisis or shortage, among other things.
The poor harvests of rice, groundnuts, millets, maize and sorghum had left villages with just two months of food supplies.
This is said to be a drop from the usual 4-6 months, at the end of the 2011 harvest.
The Gambian government said it cannot match the needs to tackle the current food crisis and prepare farmers for the 2012 farming season, appealing for US$23 million in seeds, fertilizers and food aid.
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