By Yero S. Bah
A Gambian Agropreneur and Proprietor of Onlifresh, Mr. Alpha Baldeh, is among the growing number of Gambian diaspora who are investing and registering successes in the country’s agriculture sector, especially in the areas of gardening. The Gambian agric investor lives in the United Kingdom (UK) but operates a 200×200 hectare farm in Sotokoi, Kombo East of West Coast Region (WCR).
In an exclusive WhatsApp interview with Mansa Banko Online from his base in UK, Onlifresh Farm Proprietor called for the formulation of favourable agricultural policies in the Gambia, and stressed the need for Gambian farmers to come together and form stronger farmer groupings in order to improve their lot.
“It all started when I visited the Gambia in February 2019, and I wanted some fresh Gambian oranges but to my surprise, almost all fruits and vegetables were either imported from Morocco, Guinea, Ivory Coast or Senegal,” Baldeh recalled. That made him to ponder as why Gambians are unable to produce enough of these fruits and vegetables in the country but importing which, he held, is not sustainable in the long run, and is bad for the local economy. “I even found out that vegetables and fruits are quite expensive compared to the past,” he lamented.
The Onlifresh Farm chief further said his awful experience in getting fresh Gambian fruits and vegetables prompted him to conduct a thorough research on the agricultural sector, especially commercial fruits and vegetables production and value addition opportunities. From that research, he was able to conclude that if agriculture is run as a business entity, it has the potentials to create sustainable social impacts for so many people through job and wealth creation.
Hear him again: “This is how I started my agricultural journey. I bought a land and Onlifresh Farm Foods Limited was born in January 2020.”
The Business and Management Graduate wants to practice integrated farming ecosystem where horticulture, grain-farming, diary, poultry, sheep and honey production would be maintained, saying the main objective of the Farm is to create an ecosystem that support each other in different areas of the food production chain in which they will be able to produce animal feeds, local manures and biogas along the way.
At that juncture, the Agropreneur used this interview to call on the government particularly the Ministry of Agriculture, to formulate policies and programmes that would support Gambian agric investors, as he highlighted the series of challenges that he faces as an agropreneur in the Gambia.
Justifying, he divulged: “As an agric investor in the Gambia, I can tell you the market is full of challenges; from dry weather conditions, to lack of proper market and marketing strategies, storage facilities, rapid and erratic price fluctuations on a daily basis making forecasting impossible; getting the right competent and skillful employees as well as inaccessibility of quality crops and the ever daunting task of accessing loans from local banks.”
The Onlifresh owner opined that farmers need a Plan B from the Gambian government in terms of access to funding and remedying some of the aforementioned challenges, as Baldeh claimed that Gambian banks are clearly not supporting Gambian farmers, at all. He told this medium his only involvement with the Ministry of Agriculture was when he needed some soil sampling test done at his farm, but he said results from the experiment were “quite poor” as it revealed a half story of the soil status. The department involved in the sampling told them that some of their machines were not functioning, reported Baldeh.
He continued: “I wish to remind government that, agriculture is the backbone of the Gambian economy; over seventy (70) percent of the Gambian citizenry are engaged in the sector directly or indirectly.” The farm proprietor stated that modernizing the sector is one of surest ways of spurring economic prosperity for many of the people, arguing it creates countless jobs and economic opportunities for youth of the country and would eventually give hope to Gambian youth to stay at home [in the country] and earn decent living.
Charging that common sense should dictate Gambians, Baldeh indicated that if imported agricultural products such as eggs from Holland, Senegal and China are cheaper than the locally produced, then Gambians must know that there are fundamental problems in the agricultural sector of the country. He posited that Gambian farmers need to come together to form stronger farmer associations in order to confront their authorities for better farming opportunities in the future.
The Gambian investor conducted by intimating that agriculture is a source of dignity for human beings and Gambians are not an exception to this reality.
