Like many people from rural Gambia, Mr. Yankuba Bittaye of Tujereng Village hailed from an extended and farming family where he started farming from childhood, as per his narration during a telephone interview with Mansa Banko Online.
Upon his graduation at Nustrat Senior Secondary School (NSSS), the young farmer continued his old farming activities and co-founded a garden, in his native village of Tujereng, wherein he grows crops and vegetables.
“As a child growing up in an extended family, my father used to be a seasoned and experienced farmer; so we do farming with him on a daily basis,” Bittaye told this medium.
The agropreneur recalled at the beginning that, he had encountered a lot of challenges, one of the biggest being “lack of water”. Describing the latter as a necessity for crop growing, he informed, “I started the garden single-handedly using a local well to draw water”. The garden was established in February 2018.
According to him, there are no official employees under his payroll but women from the vicinity do join him in his garden in order to make ends meet, by offering them free water. Bittaye was fortunate to benefit from a GIZ entrepreneurship training where he eventually got some funds to drill a borehole in his garden, and also registered his garden business.
However, he pointed to lack of fence around his garden as another challenge he continues to face of late; and further decried the collapse of the old well which used to support the borehole of his garden. Bittaye wants to provide a sustainable living and contribute to the socioeconomic development of his beloved motherland-The Gambia; and hear him, “I want to also provide fresh and healthy crops to Gambians”.
He opined, “The agricultural sector in the Gambia is really discouraging as we lack support from the Gambia government, NGOs and philanthropists.” Bittaye said he would be definitely delighted to receive some form of support from potential sponsors, particularly from the agricultural departments of the country. He lamented the difficulties he faces in getting local manure, claiming it’s sold at higher prices by poultry farmers in the Gambia.
The marketing of his garden produce is not also an easy task because of the price fluctuation in the market which he attributed, mainly to crops introduced in the market by the Senegalese. He urged Gambian authorities to put up mechanisms to curtail that trending situation.
It’s Bittaye’s opinion that the Gambia government is not supportive of him, in anyway, and “it’s always giving flimsy excuses about agriculture as they don’t usually support Gambian farmers. He disclosed, “I harvest three times in a month and I divide the accumulated amount by three; excluding my expenditures to know my final profits as per that actual month earning.”
The Tujereng native said pesticides and non-pesticides are the preventive measures he’s using to protect his crops from pests invasion.
He couldn’t conclude with extending gratitude to all those who, in one way or another, supported him throughout his farming journey.
