By Isatou Jawara
United Purpose (UP), through the West African Competitiveness Programme -The Gambia (WACOMP-GM) - Wednesday, November 30th embarked on two-day farmer study tour of two of its wet-season onion production sites in Lower River Region (LRR) and Central River Region (LRR).
The sites include Jomar community garden in the LRR and Njoben community garden in the CRR. The aim of the tour was to enable farmers share experiences and best farming practices.
UP in partnership with three local NGOs; namely FFHC, NATC and TARUD, has received funding from the European Union (EU) to implement the WACOMP, value chain project targeting women farmers in The Gambia.
The move is aimed at increasing competitiveness by enhancing quality and compliance in the onion, tomato, pepper, and orange flesh sweet potato value chain.The project, which was launched in April 2021, will last for a period of 36 months.
In partnership with local NGOs and the 5 regional marketing federations, with a membership of approximately 35,000 of which 95% are women, the project is being implemented in the CRR-N, CRR-S, NBR, LRR and WCR.
Madam Ngansa Touray, UP- WACOMP Project Manager, explained that the project is geared towards empowering vegetable producers to ensure enough stock in vegetable production, especially onions for both local consumption and export. However, to compete in the onion market, she indicated that there is a greater need for all year-round onion production in The Gambia.
Tom Senghore, Project Officer for UP said initially, several were in doubt whether the wet season onion production would be a success, but that the success of the Njoben and Jomar experiments are clear manifestations that the wet season onion production is possible in the country.
Adama M. Jallow, Research Officer at the Horticulture Unit of the National Research Institute (NARI), advised gardeners to cultivate onion using smart techniques.
He equally challenged them to always keep their products in cool dry place to avoid their produce getting rotten.
Speaking on behalf Njoben onion producers, Mod Gaye commended UP for empowering them with valuable skills and urged onion producers to work hard to ensure sufficient onions in the market.
Mariama Camara, of Jomar community garden and Kaddy Cham of Foni Kankuntu, commended UP and partners for coming up with the new onion variety, expressing hope that the initiative would ensure sufficiency in onion production in the country.
United Purpose (UP) is an international NGO based in The Gambia working on eradicating poverty and improving food security targeting vulnerable households and communities.
