Ms. Sira Bah, a member of the Bulock Kapongha Youth Development Association, has disclosed that she used to fetch firewood as well as charcoal and sell them as means of survival until the youth of Bulock village came up with the youth association which now runs a village garden for women of the said settlement.
She also informed Mansa Banko Online during a recent WhatsApp interview that, at the moment, she’s growing bitter tomatoes, garden eggs, pepper and onions, adding the youth association initiated the garden project through partnership with the National Agricultural Land and Water Management Development Project (Nema project),- IFAD funded project in The Gambia which gave them a great deal of support over the years, before the project eventually phased out, last year.
“For onions, one would harvest at least forty (40) bags sometimes, whilst the least harvest would be eight (8) bags,” the Bulock female gardener disclosed.
However, according to her, lack of market for the harvested products is always a challenge for the women gardeners in Bulock; but she is optimistic that with the SheTrades-sponsored Chili pepper project, the issue of lack of market would be eliminated, reasoning because the sponsor has agreed to purchase whatever is harvested by them from the chilli pepper project.
The Business Development Officer of chili pepper project, Mr. Sarjo Jarju, who is posted there by West African Rural Foundation (WARF), informed this online medium that, the Chili pepper project for the women of the Bulock Kapongha Youth Association is being funded by SheTrades.
[SheTrades in the Gambia, as the official version states, aims to facilitate the integration of Gambian women-owned businesses in the economy and increase their participation in trade. The initiative is being implemented in collaboration with the Gambia’s Ministry of Trade, Regional Integration and Employment.]
Jarju said he’s serving as the business advisory service officer, providing advisory services to these Bulock women who are facing some challenges in terms of marketing. He cited the gardens they are working with both in the Fonis and Kombos as the Bulock Garden, Brefet Garden (in Foni), Mandinaba Garden, Darsilami Garden, Marakissa Garden and Sukuta Garden. One business development officer is assigned to every two gardens, he told this medium.
Bulock garden’s membership comprised three hundred (300) women-gardeners as well as few other men, and each gardener has over fifteen (15) beds, said Jarju, who also pointed out that they are working on getting a local market outlet for the women, and training women on food processing skills as well.
“Heritage is responsible of the chili project through the SheTrades–as donors of the project; targeting six women gardens in Kombos and Fonis,” Jarju remarked.
The business development officer noted that the women gardeners are using locally-produced organic manure on these chili pepper seedlings. He added that they also have other partners, including the Gambia government through the Ministry of Trade, who promised to purchase the onions grown from these gardens, because “there is no importation of onions this year”. Jarju informed that the business development officers attached to these gardens are working with the Trade Ministry to facilitate that agreement between the parties involved.
“The farmers have a manure compost chamber here; they have that initiative of creating that compost chamber that would help them generate income for the sustainability of the garden,” Jarju explained. He noted that the farmers would collect animal dungs and other decomposing materials to prepare organic manure that they would later sell to potential customers. Women gardeners would contribute one hundred dalasi each, towards the sustainability of the garden and it facilities.
Jarju couldn’t conclude without expressing gratitude to the officials of Nema project, SheTrades, and West Africa Rural Foundation (WARF), intimating they are having positive impacts on the lives of these gardeners. Justifying, he said the interventions help these parents to pay their children’s school fees and also put food on the table.
