By Maria Lopes
The women at Old Jeshwang garden along the Banjul Highway has called on the government of the Gambia to provide the fence that will protect their crops from damage.
They raised this concern to The Voice newspaper when the reporter visited the ground recently.
Isatou Ndure, a gardener said that one of their major challenges in the garden is lack of fertilizer and proper fencing to surround the garden.
“It is sometimes very difficult for us to clear our land to grow crops and vegetables because the crocodiles will be jumping all over the place and that makes us to be scared and run away leaving the land unattended,” she explained.
She added that they grow different types of vegetables which include cabbages, salad, garden eggs, egg plants, okra, onions and rice. In addition to that, if we grow anything here it will grow fast because we have the fertile soil.
She called on the government to help with the fence issue, fertilizer and the huge grasses that keep growing fast in the garden which serves as habitat for different kinds of pets, diseases; snakes as well as crocodiles destroy their vegetables and crops.
According to Vergenni Kanntassan who is also a gardener said that they work hard to earn their living from the gardening activities despite all the challenges they are facing in the garden.
“We faced a lot of difficulties because the garden has been like this for years without proper fencing. We always use rags, mosquito nets to cover up the place in order to prevent any destruction from the animals,” she disclosed.
She added that they encounter a lot of challenges in their rice fields with the crocodiles and it is always difficult to harvest the rice.
She noted that during the former President Yahya Jammeh led administration, the borders used to be closed when the Gambians garden products are in the market and it will not open until those garden products have finished in the market but that is not happening in this current government and it makes the marketing of our products very difficult because the price of the basic commodities is always going high.
Alimatou Manneh, who also expressed her thoughts and views in the gardening activities and said that she has been in these activities for 20 years and have been growing different types of vegetables in other to sustain her family, she lamented.