Indian Investor Targets Agriculture Sector

The Daily Observer (Banjul)

Hatab Fadera

19 May 2011

The vice president of the Kirloskar Brothers Limited, an Indian-based corporate international institutional business, has disclosed plans by his firm to invest in The Gambia’s agricultural sector, especially in the area of irrigation with a view to boosting agricultural production and ensuring the attainment of food self-sufficiency within 24 months.

L H Dabi, whose company is said to be one of the world’s largest manufacturers of pumping systems, was speaking to State House press corps Wednesday in Kanilai shortly after having audience with the president of the Republic, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, who is also the minister of Agriculture. Dabi further disclosed to reporters that they are working on the modalities of how many hectares [to cultivate] while assuring that they expect to complete it in the next two months.

“If everything goes well, ‘inshallah’ [Allah willing] The Gambia will be food self-sufficient and export surplus within the next 24 months [2 years],” he disclosed to reporters. He stressed that what they can do as investors is to partner with The Gambia in its quest for food self-sufficiency and export the surplus, as well as empowering the people towards progress.

Commenting on the prospects of agricultural production in the continent, the Indian investor underscored that his closed-door discussion with President Jammeh also centered on how Africa could put priority on irrigated agriculture than what it is today – rain-fed agriculture. This, according to Dabi is significant considering the fact that each of the 54 countries in the continent is importing food and thus does not have its own food to feed its people, something he decried as “rather sad”. He said: “If you go by the land and water resources available in [the continent], Africa can be the food basket of the world and more than feeding its people, it can export.”

When asked as to what extent the dependency syndrome on importation of food affects the continent, Dabi observed: “In spite of having fertile land and enough water resources; at the fraction of the import cost, you can grow your own food and be export surplus. Instead of that each country is spending two to four hundred million dollars every year to import food. Isn’t that a big setback to one’s reserve, which you need to put into other development aspects like industries, infrastructures etc?” Dabi also disclosed that President Jammeh applauded the modalities discussed.

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