Guinea-Bissau: The Thematic Group to identify on-site the needs of the farmers

The Thematic Group of Rural Development and Food Security of Guinea-Bissau enjoys strong participation from the civil society. The various NGOs that form it, together with the FAO, the World Food Programme and various governmental institutions have established visits to population centres as one of the priority lines of work. The aim is to determine on-site, through dialogue with the farmers and fishermen, the needs of the communities and the lines of action to be followed.

The last of these visits (5 and 6 October) was made to the region of Tombali. Fourteen members of the group first visited the rice fields of Catchaque, where 126 people work 620 hectares. There, advances were observed in the project TCP/GBS/0067. At this site, a conflict over water management arose, and an attempt to resolve the problem is being made by forming a committee that will decide at what time the irrigation channels should be opened and closed. The members of the group stated that to assure diversified food in the zone, it would be necessary in the future to introduce species of ruminants, vegetables and fruits and also promote their commercialization.

The second stage of the visit was to the rice fields of Ga-Dua (310 hectares for 150 farmers). This rice area had suffered the same types of water-management problems, and a regulating committee was formed with members from 15 communities. The next day, with an application from one of the NGOs operating in the zone, the group travelled to Gadamiel-Porto, where they met with fishermen, who expressed their concerns about the lack of a market in the area. The group also met with the Association of Women, who were in charge of the management of the cereal storage, credit, horticulture and fish preparation. The FAO requested that one of the NGOs prepare a project within the framework of Telefood to put into practice a small unit of fish preparation and preservation. Also, the group met with the Association of Fishermen (28 members), who showed the precarious state of their equipment.

Responding to the application of another of the NGO present, the group travelled to Dar el Uda to visit a community centre for dynamism, built to stem the exodus of the rural youth and to permit the projections of organized films and other activities. In the last stage of the trip, the group visited the Centre for the Fish Preparation of the town of Cacine and met with representatives of the Regional Delegation of Fishing to analyse current problems in that sector.

This two-day visit enabled a number of considerations on various matters: the damage to rice fields inflicted by insect pests; the poor state of the Buba-Catió road, which could become unusable during the rainy season; the great dynamism in the communities visited; the lack of communication systems; the fundamental importance of establishing water management in the rice fields visited.

With this, the members of the Thematic Group offered the following recommendations:

• the government should provide the farmers with chemical products to combat insect pests, a measure to be included in the budget of the Agriculture Ministry.
• the possibilities for the rehabilitation of the roads be studied.
• water-management committees be implemented in all the rice fields in need of such a measure.
• a regular and permanent store of seeds be maintained for the farmers to use during the sowing period.
• awareness programmes should be set up to improve the use of dams
• fish-preparation centres be created in the zone.

First-hand knowledge of the activities on which the different rural-development actors work, as well as the direct contact with the farming and fishing community, offers a fuller view of the needs and problems of a rural population. As in Guinea-Bissau, in many other countries, co-ordination between institutions, NGOs and UN agencies becomes steadily more necessary. Here, the Thematic Groups face a major challenge.

For further information: FAO-GNB@field.fao.org