The Gambia will play the role of U.N FAO's effort of Food Security

IFAD. “Community Gardens Pave the Way for Climate-Resilient Agriculture in Gambia.” IFAD, Dec. 2019, www.ifad.org/en/web/latest/story/asset/41487388.

Feed The Gambia Project. The Feed Gambia Project, 2020, www.feedgambiaproject.org/.

Mendy J, Asongwe GA, Nkongho RN (2020) Vulnerability to food insecurity and coping strategies of agrarian households in the lower river region of the Gambia: Implication for policy. Int J Agric Sc Food Technol 6(2): 115-126. DOI: 10.17352/2455-815X.000064

WFP. “Gambia.” Gambia | World Food Programme, June 2020, www.wfp.org/countries/gambia.

Kuyateh , Haruna. “'Food Insecurity Affects Women, Children in The Gambia'- Sarjo Camara.” The Voice, 21 Sept. 2020, www.voicegambia.com/2020/09/21/food-insecurity-affects-women-children-in-the-gambia-sarjo-camara/.

Darboe, Mustapha K. “Fish Scarcity Hits the Gambia, Affecting Livelihoods.” Anadolu Ajansı, 2020, www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/fish-scarcity-hits-the-gambia-affecting-livelihoods/2042343.

2.2 million people live in The Gambia.

Thirty percent of The Gambia's population suffering from extreme poverty, which means it is one of the poorest country's in Africa.

Because of widespread crop failure, The Gambia announced a food emergency in 2018.

In the Gambia, Food Insecurity affects mostly children and women.

Thirty-one percent of children from the ages six to fifty-nine months are affected by malnutrition.

Because of Covid-19, farmers in The Gambia are especially vulnerable.

Covid-19 has adds to the growing malnutrition by around thirty-six percent, which affects 58,177 children.

The Gambia will support the U.N. to work with local farmers in communities around the world and NGOs to provide meals to students during the school day and a take home meal for families in an effort towards providing food security for all.

As a result to crop failure and droughts, the first large food crisis struck in the eighties.

The Gambia's Food Security was much better and self-sustainable fifty to sixty years ago than today in agricultural households.

In 1996, the World Food Summit defined Food Security as “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.

The definition for Food Insecurity is limited or unsure access to safe, nutritionally adequate food.

The Gambia relies on mostly agriculture for their food source, and with an increase in water evaporating, a speedy warming rate, a minimization of precipitation, and the sea level rising up to seven centimeters, the agriculture can be at risk.

Over the past forty years, streams and springs have dried up, which affects the agriculture, which is where they get their food from.

The Gambia is ranked 175th inside United Nations Human Development Index.

One in three Gambians are exposed to malnutrition and food insecurity.

Amidst the rising food costs, forty-eight percent of The Gambia is living under the country's national poverty line.

Food insecurity and vulnerability is more present in urban areas rather than rural.

The Jarra West and East District are the most Food Insecure in The Gambia.

Based off a government assessment, 733,000 people in The Gambia have lost their jobs due to the spike in food insecure people and Covid-19.

The WFP keeps an ongoing collaboration with Government partners, academia, private sector, civil society organizations and other Rome based United Nation agencies like FAO, and IFAD to promise compatibility in activities in nutrition and food security.

Most farmers do not have the resources to change their farming methods for growing food.

The Gambia is dependent on imported food to feed the people of their country.

The reason why community gardens work is because they are sharing a space and combining their resources.

And when there is excess food, they are able to trade with other people.

The Gambia mostly imports food and relies on other countries for food. If The Gambia makes more relations with other countries, they can gain more food. In return, they can produce food (by agricultural farming) and export it to the same countries.

If The Gambia makes more solar powered irrigation systems, it can help them keep their crops watered even during droughts. It is also sustainable and climate friendly.

Teaching new and better farming techniques could help increase the amount of food that is grown. Use the founders of the community garden(s) to spread the word and help others.

In the spirit of "adopt a highway" someone can found an organization where people can "adopt" a part of the ocean and patrol the area more so illegal fishing does not happen and they can have more resources.

Providing school meals to students during the school year through the governments help.

The IFAD funding the National Agricultural Land and Water Management Development project has made thirty-three community gardens throughout The Gambia, helping people living in the rural area get through erratic rainfall, droughts, and limited access to water. And with seventeen more under construction, the gardens will help 10,000 people, mostly women.

"To help protect rural households, IFAD has been funding the National Agricultural Land and Water Management Development project through its Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP). It aims to increase the climate resilience of smallholder farmers and improve local climate change management."- IFAD (pg. 2)

The IFAD is teaching and training farmers about soil fertilization and how it can make the product grow five times more product.

The community gardens irrigation system is powered by solar panels which make it cheap and sustainable.

The Feed Gambia Project are training farmers to be smarter about farming and to maximize the resources they have.

"The Feed Gambia Project’s international team has developed a multi-phase strategy to implement new measures of cattle-breeding,
farming, and sustainable wage initiatives."- The Feed Gambia Project.

The Feed The Gambia Project are providing inventive supplies and strategies to harvest and grow food for local communities that have suffered from Food Insecurity.

Some of the solutions the WFP (World Food Programme) would like to execute are bring food assistance to crisis-affected populations, and bring school meals to preschool and primary children during the school year and enhance the local government so they can keep providing the meals.

The WFP is aiding the Gambian Government in giving 200,000 children take home food rations from school.

The WFP is promoting women-led fish markets to help with food insecurity.

They are also connecting the fish markets with school feeding programs.

The WFP would also like to provide specialized nutritious food to pregnant women, lactating woman, and girls under the age of five to prevent malnutrition.

Today, the consequences from Food Insecurity can be increased indebtedness, decreased assets holding, decreased income, and reduced food production.

Some coping strategies that Gambians use are borrowing food from relatives and neighbors, eating cheaper food, buying food by debt, selling food ration items to buy other food items, eating less in meals, lowering number of meals, adults not eating so their kids can have more food, and more.

The government Covid-19 food support hit 23,000 vulnerable households, therefore helping 841 families.

Community gardens have become a type of small sustainable agriculture in The Gambia, giving an effective way to direct limited water availability and droughts. They are often low-emission because some are powered by solar panels.

As the current Covid-19 pandemic continues, The Gambia is not prepared for any disruption or crisis.