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(NATC) Njawara Agricultural Training Centre, Gambia
 
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Contact Address Details:

Njawara Agricultural Training Centre

NATC Head office, Njawara Village
Lower Baddibu District
North Bank Region (NBR)
The Gambia, West Africa

Tel no: +220 5720131
                    7073775
                    9905749 / 5720131
                    
Email: natcfarm@yahoo.co.uk




Branches: 1

Directions:
Take the ferry north to Barra from Banjul.



  Information:
The idea for creating the Njawara Training Centre (NATC Gambia) came from Mr. Badarra Jobe who is a native of Njawara Village in Baddibu and the local village chief. It is a community led NGO which was founded in 1990 and became a registered NGO in 1997.



The agricultural complex in Njawara Village has building facilities and working fields for training male and female farm workers methods of using ecological agriculture to increase their farms output, integrating farmland with forest trees, and encouraging sustainable management of natural resources.

It is the vision of the agricultural institute that the program will enhance the societal welfare of the rural people in the district by encouraging income creation, small businesses, gender equality, a reliable food supply, and stem the flow of the young from the district's villages to the urban areas along the West coast and Banjul. It is also hoped that knowledge of best practices gained by the trainees will later spread to other areas.

One example of the local impact the Njawara Training Centre has had is in the way crops used to be set out on more elevated farms. The local Gambian farmers used to plant their crops in rows that aligned with the slope, which led to water and soil erosion. This denuded the soil of fertility and allowed the soil to spread into lowland agricultural fields. This intermingling of soil types reduced the health and yield of lowland rice production. The founder, Badarra, taught them "contour farming" which meant planting crops across the slope which greatly reduced erosion and loss of fertility.

Another example was how farmers could mitigate the detrimental effects for certain crops of a day of no rain or a few days of low rainfall. Aside from diversification certain techniques that involve cultivation in exactly aligned but mini areas for a selection of different crops linked to particular types of seeds could mitigate losses.

Areas of the course focuses on the integration of animals and crops, shade crop cultivation and cover planting for forage. Farmers are also taught skills to mitigate the damage caused by the arrival of pests that can arise as a result of these changes.



NATC's Gambian & International Partners:
• Agency for the Development of Women & Children (ADWAC)
• Ashoka
• Resource Efficiency for Agricultural Production (REAP Canada)
• Freedom from Hunger Campaign (FHC)
Methodist Mission Agricultural Program (MMAP)
• Organisation for Participatory Learning and Action (OPLA)
• Saint Joseph's Family Farm (SJFF)

Overseas Donors:
• Action Aid International The Gambia (AAIG)
• Bicton Overseas Agricultural Trust (BOAT)
• Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
• Canada Fund For Local Initiatives (CFLI)
• Concern Universal (CU)
• Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
• European Commission (EU)
• Methodist Relief & Development Fund (MRDF)
• Okanagan College - British Columbia, Canada
• Oxfam America












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