FIOHTG through its Community Development Unit has successfully embarked on an engagement with its Village Development Projects in the Central River Region for the capitalization of the newly phased communities to start a cereal Banking scheme.
The scheme aimed at strengthening the food security abilities of these VDPs in a bid to reduce hunger, mostly from July to September.
Four out of the nine new VDPs capitalized to commence the scheme through the buying and storage of the coos– for its abundance and cheapness during the seasonal period.
The communities include: Prince in NBR, Medina Sasita in LRR and Daru and Jallow Kunda Mat Mbaye in CRR. Accordingly, the initiative is in line with FIOHTG programme strategies, that is enhancing communities’ livelihoods through food security.
The beneficiary communities hailed the gesture and commended FIOHTG describing it as “one of the most important support received from donors”.
They further promised to make the best use of the opportunity by ensuring its growth and sustainability.
Equally, other existing Cereal Banking schemes in Chargel and Changai cluster were monitored by the team. According to them, they are waiting on the thresher machine to thresher their coos, and immediately that’s done, the community will collect them from the concerned people. Since being capitalised, there have been improvements in the scheme because most of them are able to generate additional bags from the little interest paid.
The Village Development Committees and the Cereal Banking Committees of the various communities all expressed commitment towards expanding the scheme for a wider coverage in the communities.