AGFAX: March 2010
Gambia's entrepreneurial vegetable growers
Adama Bah, Lamin Touray and Marie Jobe: Advisor for Gambia is Good (GIG) project and Vegetable growers for GIG project
Summary:
Now four years old, the Gambia is Good (GIG) fresh vegetable marketing company has supported around 1000 small-scale vegetable growers in becoming commercial farmers. Moving from subsistence production has meant learning new ways of farming for a new set of crops. The rewards are high though - over US$200 per month for some growers. Ismaila Senghore talks to GIG advisor Adama Bah and two GIG farmers about a project that is now supplying up to five tonnes of fresh vegetables every week to the country's hotels, restaurants and supermarkets.
Suggested introduction:
In The Gambia, like elsewhere in Africa, those who want to make farming a specialist business need a commercial approach. Hotels and restaurants, for example, need top quality, fresh vegetables to serve to tourists; but until recently, most of those vegetables have been imported, with Gambian farmers unable to supply the quality or quantity needed.
However in the last four years, around 1000 farmers, mostly women, have been trained in quality vegetable production, under a project called Gambia is Good, or Gig. The project has set up a fresh produce marketing company, which sources from the small-scale growers and sells their produce to high paying customers - hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. To find out more, Ismaila Senghore spoke to some of the farmers involved, and first, to Mr Adama Bah, one of the project advisors.
Tape in:
You know that the farmers...
Tape out:
...It is a good project.
Closing Announcement:
Marie Jobe, a vegetable grower who has moved from subsistence to commercial farming, thanks to the Gambia is Good project.
Making the most of it:
How can subsistence farmers get into commercial farming - growing crops for income instead of food? Why not invite two or three farmers who have managed to change to cash-crop farming, and have a discussion programme on that topic? A small business advisor who works with farmers would be a useful participant in the discussion.
Further information:
Gambia is Good project - www.concernuniversal.org/index...
Transcript
Bah
You know that the farmers, most of them are subsistence farmers. Now being subsistence farmers, in most cases they do not grow those vegetables that they cannot eat at the end of the day. For example before most farmers do not produce things like cauliflowers. They do not produce the herbs for example. They do not produce sweet pepper. But now we are re-orientating them so that they will be able to produce these things to be able to supply the market which is mainly the hotel industry and other restaurants.
Senghore
Now what are the steps that they have to go through to come this far?
Bah
Well most of them are very successful now. Most of them have become not only farmers but they are developing entrepreneurial skills. Because now we have got a production meeting; each month we put together our production staff - mainly these are extension workers who work with the farmers on the field - so that we can tell them how much we will buy in terms of tomatoes, how many we will buy in terms of all the other vegetables and they will go and actually work with the farmers to produce these things. So that they will be able to produce in such a way that they will not glut the market, you will not have too many things and then the price will go down. So we are training them in all these skills so that they will be not only farmers but they will be entrepreneurial in their approaches.
Senghore
So how far would you say they have been successful in achieving these objectives?
Bah
Well most of them are very successful farmers now. The main difficulty is, what we need to establish first is to make sure that we have continuous supply so that the hotels do not call us and we tell them we do not have tomatoes or we do not have carrots or we do not have this because that is the only way you can establish confidence in the market so that they will be able to continuously buy from you. Now we have had difficulties. The main challenges are during the rainy season you know a lot of these women do not continue with their gardens. Even though we have proven to them that it is still possible to grow tomatoes during the rainy season and have a good yield. But most of them, of course because of the subsistence culture again, they would rather go and do the rice fields and do other things. So that is a hindrance. So we are beginning to concentrate more on those farmers that can actually guarantee us continuous supply.
Senghore
So how many farmers are you servicing now?
Bah
I would say within about 800 to 1000 farmers.
Senghore
Now finally Mr Bah what would you say is the most satisfying aspect of the GIG project for you?
Bah
The most satisfying aspect is at the end of the year, if you calculate how much you have paid to the farming community. You are not giving them any promissory notes, you are giving them cash and they use that. Some people will tell you we use this to feed ourselves, not only that, to send our girls or send our children to school. That is the most satisfying bit of this project. And I must tell you we have managed to reduce the number of imports coming into this country. We are definitely reducing the amount of vegetables that used to come from Senegal or even used to come from Morocco. So I think this is very good in terms of foreign exchange, in terms of the development of this country and I think it should be encouraged.
Senghore
Now I have with me two farmers of the project. That is Mr Lamin Touray and we also have Marie Jobe. Now Lamin, what are the skills that you need to ensure the quality of your produce?
Touray
Well the first thing I would say that is good seed. If you have a good seed by the end of the day you think of I am going to have a good harvest from this seed. The second thing I would elaborate on that is the fertiliser, because when you have a proper fertiliser you put it on your crops, they become mature very well and you can harvest bumper harvest from those things.
Senghore
And is it worth the effort?
Touray
Actually it is worth.
Touray
Why, because in terms of GIG, when you are working with them, I think it is some kind of system that they normally tell farmers if you sell the crops these are the times that the price will be like higher and these are the times the price would be low. If you said maybe by January you can sow tomato, by three months time in March the price is going to be higher. So I think it is good to work with them and they are paying the fairest price for our produce because they come, they put it on the kilogrammes and whatever kilo you have they pay it straight.
Senghore
Now do you think any kind of farmer can do this? Is this suitable for everybody?
Touray
No, I do not think so.
Touray
There are a lot of challenges in this. I can see some farmers when they tell you about new things, new knowledge, they do not agree with it. At the end of the day they fall out because of maybe laziness or something else. But for us, we are moving with them step by step until we achieve our goal.
Senghore
Thank you very much Lamin it has been a pleasure talking to you. But I have also another farmer in the person of Marie Jobe. Now Marie what are the kind of crops you are growing for the Gambia is Good company in Jawala?
Jobe
Well for me I am growing tomato, cucumber, white radish, sweet pepper and hot pepper too.
Senghore
And do you grow these all year round?
Jobe
Yes all year round because I have different types of seed, the rainy season seeds and the dry season seed. That is why we can continuously produce vegetable products for GIG. But before we would only have these local seeds, you cannot grow in the rainy season. After dry season then we stopped gardening.
Senghore
Do you have any personal plans for expansion?
Jobe
Well for me, I have a garden and poultry. The profit I have from the garden I use it for my poultry to raise chickens for eggs.
Senghore
Madam sometimes people do not want to say how much they get out of what they do. But maybe we can have just a fair estimate of what your earning could be if not monthly but maybe annually?
Jobe
Annually maybe I can get roughly up to 150,000.
Senghore
That is a lot of money, you can buy a car or go to hajj in Mecca?
Jobe
Yes of course. I normally use it to expand my poultry. Yes I am doing poultry and I want to expand more.
Senghore
So if I may ask one last question. What do you like best about GIG?
Jobe
The best is they help a lot of farmers especially like us. They train us, they buy our produce and they advise us how to deal with it. Even if you don't see them you can go without them. It is a good project. End of track.
