Farmers in Njawara in the Upper Baddibu District have lamented the shortage of storage facilities and lack of market outlets for their produce.

Speaking to The Point newspaper at the Njawara community farm last Saturday, Mr. Wally Joof, a retired agriculturist and manager of the farm, said the objective of the project was to reduce poverty and increase food security. “Our intention is for us to have enough space, cultivate more crops but what hinders all this is the lack of market and storage facilities,” he said.

According to him, people are trained annually on animal husbandry, horticulture and agro-forestry. Eighty percent of these trainees, he said, are women. “At the end of each training, we give each of them loans amounting to D23,000 to start her own project in her village. This is done in other to reduce poverty,” he said.
Also expressing his concern on the issue, Pa Panneh, a farmer at Njawara, said the village had responded to president’s call on people to go back to the land.

He was however quick to add that the lack of proper marketing and storage facilities made it difficult for them to sustain their production base. “Farmers are working very hard but at the end of the day, we are faced with how to market our produce, because what they produce is more than what they sell,” he said.
Funded by Action-Aid The Gambia to the tune of one million dalasis, the community of Njwara has a two- hectare community garden.