By Yero S. Bah
More women are involved in gardening since most of them have seen it as an indispensable source of funding for them and their families in the Gambia.
Mansa Banko Online had an exclusive interview with the Abuko gardeners, at their garden on the Abuko-Lamin highway.
One Maimuna Gomez, a woman-gardener at Abuko garden opposite the Abuko Nature Reserve, argued that illiteracy is another crucial factor that drives most Gambian women into farming and horticultural activities. She told this medium that, since she is not literate, gardening is her source of income; and it is from gardening that she is able to meet her financial needs.
“I cultivate different types of crops in different seasons of the year,” said Mrs. Gomez, lamenting that she could have been someone else if she was literate, but her parents never took the initiative to put her in school.
She explained that, she got into gardening due to the enormous benefits she gets from her horticultural activity; she pays her children’s school fees and is able to put food on the table from the proceeds of the garden.
Gomez’s words,“My living is from this garden.” She, however, pointed to lack of water and garden fence as some of the few major challenges all gardeners do encounter. Madam Gomez further cited domestic animal intrusion, saying animals from Abuko and the surroundings sometimes invade their crops, particularly at night when everyone had gone home.
For Sambou Dibba, horticulture is lucrative and that he wants to see Gambian men get involved in the farming activities. He frowned at the fact that throughout the said garden, there are only two men who are engaged in horticulture gardening.
Mr. Dibba said it’s disappointing that most Gambian men don’t value agriculture; that only women are massively into the business of agriculture in the Gambia especially in the urban centers.
“There are only two men in this garden here in Abuko, the rest are all women,” the male gardener noted. He reiterated the numerous problems they face at the said garden, notably water shortage and animal incursion due to lack of a fence to protect their crops and the garden, in general.
According to him, he has a larger area for cultivation but lack of water and proper fencing deter him from embarking on farming in such scales. Sambou posited that it would be good if government “can help us with water {supply} and a fence”. The gardener added that he usually starts selling the leaves of the potatoes after three months of planting, whilst the fruits a month or two later by allowing clients to collect from him at the garden, which also creates employment for others too. He raises cash from the sales of the leaves to the fruits as he grows crops such as potatoes, okra, onions, cabbage and pepper.
Sambou informed this medium he usually buys fertilizers from Brikama and also prepares locally-made fertilizers from composed-manure. He called on government to subsidize fertilizers for the farmer and gardeners, reasoning that most of them are strugglers in the business.
Also speaking to Mansa Banko Online was Mr. Famara Sanyang, who said he left the hotel industry to join the horticultural farming. He divulged that what he raises from his garden is far more than what he used to earn from his previous tourism job. He confided in this medium that, yearly, he could earn up to D150,000 in just six months from his garden produce. “I never can get that from my tourism work,” he claimed.
He decried what he termed “lack of support” for gardeners from the Gambia government, maintaining that their garden should have a fence and proper water systems installed there to enable farmers make maximum profits without much hassle.
Sanyang recalled that last year, a white philanthropist helped them to construct a flash floods barrier right through the garden to divert the yearly rainy season float waters from destroying their rice fields and other crops. Like others, he too spoke of the invasion and destruction of their crops by animals from the Abuko Nature Reserve, saying because the place is not fenced and thus open to all types of intrusions.
But he alleged that lack of unity between the gardeners renders them ineffective in pressuring government to act on their plights. Sanyang said he did his best to ameliorate the challenges by paying heavy fees to well-diggers and paddy erectors.
He also re-echoed the need for Gambian men to be involved in horticulture, enthusing that, it doesn’t only earn you cash, but also gives farmers fresh crops which promote healthy diets at home.
