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She told a day's consultative forum on Gambia national food security and response strategies in Banjul that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had predicted that soaring food prices would remain high for at least for the next 10 years and sub-Saharan Africa would be hardest hit.
The forum was organized by Actionaid, the Gambia, in conjunction with National A gricultural Development Agency (NADA) and Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), an international development agency.
Njie-Saidy also pointed out that the Gambia was among one of the most vulnerable countries due to the high dependence of rain-fed agriculture which was both unpredictable and erratic.
She noted that the Gambia's agricultural sector in recent years had suffered fro m declining production which was due to adverse weather conditions coupled with other constraints.
"Reports collected by various stakeholders indicated that since 2005, total food grain production has declined by 35 per cent. This has led to a critical situation when balanced against needs."
Njie-Saidy added that the agricultural sector had been constrained by financial difficulties, inadequate rural infrastructure, weak coordination among government agencies and stakeholders and lack of inputs and markets, among others.
The Vice President further stated that the World Food Program (WFP) estimates showed a wide gap between local production of food and growing consumption needs.
Njie-Saidy called for the rebuilding of national food economies that would requi re immediate and long-term robust strategies adding that absolute priority had t o be given to domestic food production to reduce dependency on international markets.
Highlighting national policy measures to tackle the soaring food prices, she said a national task force on food security had been formed under her office comprising of government and stakeholders to address issues like causes of the food crises and increasing national food deficits.
She also said the priorities of the government in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) were to transform the agricultural sector, establish urban and peri-urban enterprises.
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