The people of Nianija District have launched an appeal to The Gambia government through the Agriculture minister to help construct a road to enable them access their abandoned rice fields or else face potential food insecurity. In Nianija District, farmers said they are hungry because the roads leading to their rice fields have been overtaken by flooding river banks, thereby making it impossible for them to reach out to most parts of their rice growing fields. As a result, they said rice production declined in the area. They said the available land areas for rice cultivation is not enough for their survival, and as a consequence, they are not able to produce enough to feed themselves, thus lead to hunger in the communities. Jainaba Jallow of Conteh village in Nianija Constituency has said there is hunger among farming communities in the Nianija Distric of Central River Region, and thus called on the minister of Agriculture to help react to the highly challenging circumstances. Speaking during a PPP political rally held at Conteh village in Nianija District last week, Mrs Jallow lamented that the access road to their rice fields got damaged, which consequently prevent them from having access to their rice fields, where they heavily rely to produce their survival. She said over the past years, most of their rice fields have not been used, resulting decline in food production in the area. She, however, lamented that the available lands in the said area were insufficient to grow them enough rice for survival. She said some people had their legs broken, while trying to use the dilapidated rice fields' roads. She added that some pregnant women had miscarriages while using the slippery roads. As a result of the numerous incidents, she said many people have abandoned their rice fields, resulting to decline in rice production. "There is hunger in our communities and we are relying on you the Agriculture to help us build access roads to our rice fields, to enable us produce more rice to feed ourselves," she said. She also appeal for government to help them with milling machines, to ease the job pressure for the women folk. She also said access to clean water was a major challenge, as she called on the Agriculture minister to help them out.