By Sarjo Jarju
Mr.Amat Ndow, a 55-year-old Tree Nursery Manager from Kerr Ngor Nyaa in Jokadou District, North Bank Region is making headway in the nursery seedling business, which eventually enabled him to earn one hundred and fifty thousand dalasis (D150,000.00) profit throughout his last year sales.
Ndow attributed his success in the said business to the patronage that he received from the middlemen who buy seedling from him at seventy-five dalasis (D75.00) per plant.
He told Mansa Banko Online in an exclusive interview, that he ploughed back the profit generated from his last year’s sales to expand his farm and support his family.
“I used the profit to buy a pumping machine for my farm and extend my fencing. Additionally, I used part of the money to feed my family and pay school fees for my children,” he explained.
Inspired by his father-in-law who was a Forestry Officer, Ndow ventured into his business in 1999 with the enthusiastic hope that the tree nursery business would yield prosperity, thus changing his life.
In his contribution to addressing desertification, and to earn income for himself and his family, Ndow raises Mahogany,Malina, Nim tree, orange, mango, lime and among a host of other fruit trees for the market.
Narrating his working relationship with his community over the years, the 55-year-old said they initiated a community tree nursery in their village where they grow seedlings for sale.
“I was also having my own nursery corner where I usually grow and sell to feed my family,” he added. The community, according to him, were later introduced to an organization called ‘Tree for the Future’ by an American Peace Corp Volunteer during his visit to the village.
As the organization works with six communities in North Bank Region, Ndow adduced that his community also benefited from seeds supply of different varieties from the organization, which they grew and sold back to the organization.
Speaking further, he said: “Before the Peace Corp Volunteer left to America, he gave me 150 meters of fencing for my farm where I started my own business without the community.”
In 2009, he was opportune to be part of a group of people selected across the country by an NGO to be trained on planting of different fruit trees mainly cashew and preparing compost heaps for nurturing of seeds.
The tree nursery manager also explained that they were later contracted after their training to grow and sell back it to them after which the NGO will then supply it to the farmers.
The NGO, he added, sponsored an exchange visit to Senegal for them to learn from their sister Senegalese tree nursery Managers.
They supplied the NGO for five years till the project phased out, after which he was able to employ his brother to work together in the same venture.
Recounting his current challenges, he faces in the nursery business, Ndow pinpointed water shortage, decrying that his well is “very old and becoming dry”.
He cited transportation problem which, according to him, caused him to lose a sale of more than four thousand seedlings at D100 each, to be transported to Lower River Region and Upper River Region.
“I really need help to solve this transportation problem,” was Ndow’s appeal to those with the wherewithal’s to bail him out.
