Agricultural cooperation with Bangladesh renewed

At least 30 agricultural experts and technicians from Bangladesh are expected in The Gambia over the next two to three years to work on small-scale rural projects to improve water management and boost agricultural production. The experts will go to The Gambia under a new agreement signed with Bangladesh, funded by the Islamic Development Bank and supported by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the FAO reported on Thursday. A similar agreement was signed in 1999 under which Bangladesh provided appropriate technology, materials and equipment to improve rice production, horticultural crops, small animal husbandry, fish farming, and small scale water control technologies. FAO said the agreement was part of its South-South Cooperation Programme (SSCP), a global initiative which aims to strengthen cooperation among developing countries, improve agricultural productivity and ensure access to food for all. The programme is part of FAO's Special Programme for Food Security designed to improve food security in some of the world's poorest countries by rapidly increasing food production, improving people's access to food and reducing vulnerability to climatic events such as drought and floods. The Gambian project is one element in a broader programme to improve the country's food security, FAO said in a statement. The experts will include 28 field technicians. They will work to boost the production of foods such as cereals, fruit and vegetables, small animals and fish, FAO said.. The Gambia, a small Sahelian country of 1.5 million people lies on the West African Atlantic coast, encircled by Senegal. It mainly depends on peanut farming and fish production for export. Some 82 percent of the population are engaged in agriculture, but the soils are sandy.