Lack of access to capital resources for Gambian rural farmers have been a grieve concerns to many resident farmers in the rural Gambia despite they are blessed with lands to engage in meaningful and productive farming activities.
The situation is no exceptional to Amadou Bah, a seventy-five (75) years old farmer who has been struggling to have a meaningful living out of farming.
He was speaking to this medium at his one and a half hectares of orchard farm at the outskirt of Njie Kunda, Nianija District,Central River Region of the country.
Bah said most farmers living in rural Gambia have no access to capital either from the banks or microfinance institutions. And also, they lack market for their farm products, access to processing plants and storage facilities.
“Farming is being my profession throughout but because of lack of capital I cannot expand on my activities. Currently I am working on in my orchard where I plant different fruit trees including bananas, oranges, lemon and pawpaw in a bid to expand on my income capabilities,” 75 years old Dawda Jallow told The Voice.
According to him, the desire to expand his orchard farm is not with difficulties, adding that proper fencing, lack of adequate water supply and farming implements remains the bottlenecks to expand on the orchard farm which he hope to transform to a vibrant commercial activity farm.
Speaking on access to capital, market and processing plants, the ardent farmer told this medium that most farmers have no means to access capital to venture into commercial agriculture.
He pointed out that, this situation is further aggravated with lack of market for farm products couple with lacks of processing plants and storage facilities that makes farming difficult for rural farmers.
“The problems of rural farmers are huge and challenging, most farmers lack capitals to do commercial agriculture including market for their products. We also have problem with accessing markets for our produce as well as processing plants and storage facilities resulting to huge losses incur by rural farmers,” the 75 years old Nianija farmer disclosed.
He observed that Gambia Government should make proper assessment on the needs of the rural farmers, noting that “if rural farmers have access to capital, agriculture will go back to its glory days.”
“I believe Gambia government should make assessment of the farmers in the rural part of the country in order to identify their needs and aspirations. Many farmers including myself need financial supports to venturing into commercial agriculture but unfortunately we are not seeing that at the moment,” Dawda Jallow pointed out.
He further disclosed that he is not only into farming but also teaching and he has more than twenty (20) Islamic students entrusted to him and they are all catered for from the little earning from the farm.
He pleaded to government and philanthropists to assist rural farmers in the country.