The World Bank (WB) is financing “The Gambia Inclusive and Resilient Agricultural Value Chain Development Project” (GIRAV), to support agricultural value chain development and to move from subsistence to more market-oriented agriculture. Building on the achievements of the Gambia Commercial Agricultural Value Chain Management (GCAV, P125024), the US$40 million grant is being implemented across all seven agricultural regions of the Gambia. The five-year project will contribute to increasing private-sector investment in agribusiness. It will contribute to creating the basis to expand the private sector’s involvement in agricultural value chains including production, processing, marketing, and service delivery.

The project is focussing on five priority value chains namely: Rice (substituting for increasing imports); Horticulture (vegetables and mangoes for urban centres and export) Cashew (for domestic processing and export) Poultry (for urban centres); and Maize (for poultry feed).

The project forms part of the World Bank’s ongoing contributions to initiatives aimed at accelerating the transformation of the Gambia’s agri-food systems to make them more inclusive, resilient, productive, competitive and sustainable. It will complement the work of agriculture and nutrition security related projects in the country as part of an integrated approach to stimulate socio-economic growth.

With the Ministry of Agriculture serving as the Chair of the Project Steering Committee, the Project Implementation Unit will work hand-in-hand with diverse stakeholders to implement the project These include Ministry of Agriculture and its specialized technical departments; Ministry of Finance; Central Bank of the Gambia; Ministry of Youth and Sports; National Enterprise Development Initiative (NEDI); the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI); National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI); West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF); National Coordinating Organisation of Farmer Associations Gambia (NACOFAG) The Gambia Standard Bureau, (TGSB), Specialized Services Providers, Regional and District Authorities, The Gambia Investment & Export Promotion Agency (GIEPA), Civil Society Organizations CBOs), National Roads Authority (NRA), Food Safety and Quality Authority of the Gambia (FSQA.

The project will directly benefit about 50,000 farmers and other actors of selected agricultural value chains including small and medium scale farmers, agricultural Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and other private actors of the selected value chains (traders, processors, exporters, service providers), with a focus on youth and women-led businesses. At least 40 percent of the direct beneficiaries will be women, and 30 percent will be youth. At least 10 SMEs will benefit directly from the project through capacity building and matching grants. Other direct beneficiaries would include public institutions responsible for the development of commercial agriculture and exports. The indirect beneficiaries will include public and private service providers, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations involved in the selected agricultural value chains.