Three Gambian women work on a fertilizer that improves the country’s agricultural possibilities
By Jaume Portell Caño from Banyul (Gambia)
The lack of state agricultural policies, the impact of imported products, fishing agreements and climate change have a direct impact on the diet of Gambians. Local initiatives to increase fruit and vegetable production aim to respond to these concerns.
Almost the entire policy of a State can be summarized in a plate of food. When it is full, everything is seen with more perspective. If it becomes empty, the nerves come. But if the mechanisms with which to fill it are lost, political instability comes and, ultimately, with hopes for change exhausted, flight. In each country, food is usually a quick summary of its history and available resources. The Gambia River runs through the country of the same name, a strip of land within Senegal on the coast of West Africa. Half a century ago, the majority of its inhabitants could nourish themselves with the rice produced there, the smallest country on continental Africa. Fish was abundant, and recipes such as bennekinno (rice with fish); Peanuts, a crop imposed during the times of British colonialism, gave rise to domoda (rice with peanuts and meat).
Today these dishes still exist, but it is increasingly difficult to prepare them: only 10% of the rice consumed in The Gambia is produced in the country; the rest is imported. Every increase in the price of gasoline, which impacts transportation, ends up with higher food prices in The Gambia. Fish is becoming more expensive, partly as a consequence of the fishing treaties signed with the EU and the arrival of Chinese vessels to the country’s coasts. The presence of fishmeal factories, also with Chinese capital, which withdraw supply from the local market, completes an equation that makes life difficult for Gambians. Even vegetables and greens, in a country of farmers, have become unaffordable as garnishes for meals.
More and more inhabitants of the country are trying to migrate, and the numbers prove them right: 28% of the national GDP comes from the remittances sent by these migrants, the real lifeboat of an economy where a bag of rice costs more than 30 euros – and the most common monthly income in the informal economy reaches, with luck, 100–. Rose Mendy, Veronique Mendy and Sandren Jatta, however, do not even consider it: “I would only go abroad to study,” says the first. They met at university, where they studied Agriculture in the same class, and their heads are full of ideas that they want to carry out in The Gambia. The three work in centers and companies linked to what they studied, but their true ambition is to create their own project where they apply everything they learned at university and in their first job.
Production and feeding
«I come from a family of farmers, rice growers. At university I learned techniques that have been used to give advice to my family,” says Sandren Jatta. Born in Berending, she went from being one of the daughters who helped at home to giving advice to her parents on what techniques should be implemented to improve production. Currently, he works alongside Rose Mendy, his university classmate, at the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), an institution that depends on the Government of The Gambia. Located next to the main road that connects Serekunda with Brikama, the two largest markets in the country, it concentrates around twenty professionals who experiment with crop seeds of all types, from onions, bananas and tomatoes to cocoa or rubber. The objective of NARI is to use different techniques and cultivation methods to increase productivity and, once the results are achieved, share this knowledge with the country’s farmers.
It’s not an office job. During the harvesting phase, Mendy, Jatta and their colleagues spend entire days carrying dozens of kilos of onions to then measure which trials have been the most productive: “Many people consider that agriculture is a job without prestige, which is why they advised me “I studied finance to work in a bank, but I have always been interested in the countryside,” says Mendy, born in Albreda, on the banks of the Gambia River. His family is also dedicated to rice cultivation. “What we produce will influence what we are going to eat,” adds Jatta. There are hardly any products in the country’s stores. made in the Gambiabeyond bottles of mineral water and cashews packaged in plastic bags. In the markets, a good part of the fruit and vegetable products are imported: oranges and apples from South Africa, tomatoes from Morocco, potatoes from the Netherlands or bananas from the Ivory Coast summarize the prospects of a country with hardly any industry and agriculture. stagnant One factor has made farmers’ activities even more difficult: a 50-kilogram bag of fertilizer already costs 33 euros.
Alternatives
Two data summarize one of the structural problems of The Gambia. Since its independence, the area dedicated to crops has barely increased (9% in 57 years). In that period of time, the population has multiplied by six. The drop in fertilizer use has decreased productivity per hectare in key crops such as rice. This situation has precipitated a demographic change: the movement of the population from rural areas to cities and peri-urban areas. Or in other words, there has been a rural exodus that has caused hundreds of thousands of people to go from being producers to consumers of food. The failed agricultural policy has created three countries in one: rural Gambia, urban Gambia and the diaspora. Rose, Veronique and Sandren, born in the late 90s and early 2000s, fit into this perception, in this case through their studies: «When you want to go to university you have to go to urban areas. There’s nothing like it in rural areas, so you have to come,” says Rose.
Climate change is another barrier faced by the Gambian primary sector, as explained by Sandren Jatta. For her, four reasons explain the reduction of some crops, and two of them have to do with global warming: increasing salinization and lack of rain: “It does not rain when it comes, and when the rain finally arrives the amount is very low. », he laments. And he adds that, sometimes, if farms are not well monitored, animals can eat part of the harvest. The lack of fertilizer – or its misuse – completes the picture: «Fertilizer is expensive and many people do not have access to it. Before, farmers had more help, they were given seeds for free; Now, many do not have them and are subsistence farmers, they do not have access to education and they do not know how to optimally use chemical fertilizer and sometimes they put too much.
Veronique Mendy is the one who knows the world of fertilizer the most of the three. He works for a company that is using a formula that fits perfectly with the Gambian situation: he fills drums with old fish and mixes it with water, garlic and limestone to turn it into fertilizer. According to Mendy, fertilizer is the heart of the problems of Gambian agriculture: «There are those who do not have land, but they have water; There are those who have water, but do not have technical knowledge, or are affected by insect attacks,” he comments. And she smiles, proud, announcing what she is working on: «What we are preparing serves as a fertilizer and a pesticide. “We source the fish from Gunjur and Sanyang, or from the markets, with leftover produce.”
The costs are very low, and the goal of the team in which he works is to manufacture fertilizer that is cheaper than imported fertilizer. Mendy lists the prices of raw materials: «We get the fish for free or almost; The rest does not cost more than 200 dalasis (less than three euros) to make a 50 kilo bag. “We would have to add the costs of transportation and energy to manufacture it.” He believes that, if they manage to market it, this ingredient could revolutionize Gambian agriculture: considering that a bag of fertilizer costs 33 euros, for the same price Gambian farmers could get several bags of local fertilizer made from fish. He shows a part of the process, which he has recorded on his mobile phone: they separate the bones from the meat, after letting it ferment in water for a day, and then they take advantage of the nutrients from that fish to make the fertilizer. The results are immediate: “Some farmers don’t trust us at first, but then they come to ask us for more,” says Mendy.
Overcome obstacles
Many Gambians do not trust products made in The Gambia. This paradox, present in all markets, is one of the obstacles when undertaking industrial projects aimed at local consumers: “Gambians often prefer imported products,” criticizes Veronique Mendy. In a market they will prefer to buy onions produced abroad rather than buying those planted in Gambia, which in some cases will end up rotting. Veronique Mendy trusts in the product she is learning to make to overcome this reluctance, and she especially trusts in the youngest: «When farmers see that they produce more bananas and that they are bigger, they want more fertilizer. “We must encourage young people to dedicate themselves to agriculture.” His colleague Rose Mendy adds another challenge to solve: «If all the people from rural areas come to the city, there will be no production there. We will all be here. Who is going to produce? Nobody”. Therefore, the three want to turn their words into actions and create their own agricultural project. To do this, they must manage to overcome another of the growing actors in the Gambian economy: the real estate sector. The purchase of land by foreign investors and Gambians in the diaspora is sending land prices soaring. In many cases, they are used to construct buildings for tourism, something that is also contributing to deforestation. «We should get land as soon as possible; If we wait three years, it will be much more expensive,” says Veronique Mendy.
They want to combine horticulture – Rose and Sandren’s strong point – with livestock farming, which would be used to make fertilizer – Veronique’s strong point – with the manure. Its objective is to have the maximum possible self-sufficiency, only importing those inputs that are not manufactured in the country. At the moment, they are looking for capital to start their investment: “We are getting support to cultivate one hectare, and in our case we do not need to hire an expert to advise us: we can do it ourselves,” explains Veronique Mendy. The goal of your project should be combined with other measures: an improvement in storage, and a more stable electricity supply. If not, they will have to spend more on generators, at a time when the price of gasoline in The Gambia already exceeds 1.10 euros per liter. “With more supply, we could guarantee that there are onions on the market all year round,” he adds.
The swing in the price of onions is, precisely, one of the recurring episodes in the country: either there is overproduction when all the sellers go to the market at the same time – and prices fall – or there is a shortage when they run out – and prices fall. They shoot. In a country that in 2022 spent more than 500 million dollars on food imports, the words of these young women are the spearhead of an idea that is sailing in the opposite direction and that quickly collides even with politics. The Gambian big businessmen, who finance politicians’ campaigns, are food importers. Food self-sufficiency would expel them from the market. In that sense, Veronique Mendy’s last question is an approach that can change the Gambia’s economic model: “Why care if there are people working hard and there are already enough onions for everyone?”
