Known throughout the 16 satellite villages for his passion, curiosity, perseverance and fidelity for the business, Omar Die Yama Ceesay, also fondly and affectionately dubbed “the Melon Champion” lives in Ndungu Kebbeh village of North Bank Region.
A fitting description of him would be: a middle-aged man, strongly built-body with wild muscles round his face and dark in complexion. His age, as could be observed, is in concord with his type of business. He is nicknamed “The Champion” because of his intellectual prowess in his chosen line of business.
In an interview with Mansa Banko Online, Ceesay revealed that trade in watermelon has been his business for approximately 40 years now, which earned him the Maxim, “The Watermelon Champion”.
He dilated on his experience in melon business which he termed as an “undiluted experience”.
According to the Ndungu Kebbeh Watermelon Champion, he started the business when men were boys. He spoke about the constraints he has been encountering in the business, notably the poor storage facilities at his disposal. He indicated that the issue of poor storage had been a long standing constraint he had been battling with since the inception of his business, some decades ago.
Ceesay decried the fact that approximately 15 melons get spoiled daily, because of their perishability in nature and due to poor storage facilities in the village.
In the same vein, the champion melon farmer lamented another issue in the village that jeopardizes his business. He revealed that night thieves are among the problems he encounters in the village.
He reported that “undesirable elements” in the village usually do invade his poor storage place and steal his watermelons at night. This, Ceesay decried, would authomatically dwindled his profits.
In the interview with Mansa Banko Online, he made passionate pleas for help from the Ministry of Agriculture and all its partners in the Gambia and abroad. Ceesay wants them to assist farmers like him, in building standard storage facilities, so that farmers could preserve their perishable goods to avoid spoilage.
In rounding off his comments, he challenged Media outlets in the country to decentralize their coverage so as to hear from rural Gambians also.
