JAKARTA. Agriculture is one of the potential sectors in building a stronger cooperation between Indonesia and Gambia, the Indonesian Embassy in Amman, Jordan, said in a press statement received by Antara here on Sunday.

The Director of Agriculture Rural Farmers Training Centre (ARFTC), Asumana Njaedi, expressed gratitude and appreciation to Indonesia which has provided a lot of trainings for the Gambian farmers and those from countries in the West African region.

Gambia is an agricultural country which depends on the agriculture sector to support its other national development programs.

However, this field has not developed and therefore Gambia requires assistance and cooperation with other countries including Indonesia.

Indonesia helps increase Gambia's rice production and improve value-added of other local agricultural products.

On 21-28 March, 2016 Indonesia organized trainings on food processing and agricultural cultivation techniques, and development of animal husbandry and marine fisheries in Gambia.

The training was continued in Lembang, West Java, Indonesia, from April 1 to 12, 2016 participated in by the farmers from Madagascar, Gambia, Mozambique, Ghana, Kenya and Ethiopia as well as local participants from several provinces of eastern Indonesia.

The agriculture center was established by Indonesia on July 14, 1998 as a form of cooperation with Gambia, located in Jenoi, about 180 kilometers from Gambia's capital of Banjul.

The center was built in an area covering 6.6 hectares of land and to date the officials have trained more than 6,000 farmers from Gambia, and surrounding countries, such as Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and Guinea Conakry.

The trainings provided by Indonesia have benefited the farming techniques development and increase the added value of agricultural products of farmers in West Africa region.

Editor: Yudho Winarto