Farafenni Women Farmers Disappointed at the Governments Failure to Provide them with Farm Tools
Farafenni Women Farmers walking to their farms 
Speaking to this medium during a visit to their farms on Sunday, 21st July 2024, the women farmers complained about the challenges they are faced with as the farming season kicks off in Rural Gambia.
Speaking on behalf of the women Binta Marong from Farafenni Fofana Kunda states that they cultivate rice every year. She said they plough the fields, plant the seedlings in a nursery and after they germinate, they will transplant them in a bigger field.
She said they do all these processes with their bare hands using traditional wooden hoes.
“We worked on hundreds of hectares of land, bending under the scorching sun, or the heavy downpour of rain using traditionally made wooden hoes. We don’t have help from the Government in terms of tractors, seedlings, fertilizer and pesticides”, she said.
“We worked on hundreds of hectares of land, bending under the scorching sun, or the heavy downpour of rain using traditionally made wooden hoes. We don’t have help from the Government in terms of tractors, seedlings, fertilizer and pesticides”, she said.
She added “We use our strength to do the farm work. We used our limited resources to buy seedlings, fertilizer and pesticides. Pesticides are costing D2500 per litre and we are poor farmers who are making ends meet to feed our families”.
She said they are women and cannot operate a tractor or a power tiller. “When we contributed to book a private tractor, we struggled to get them on our farmlands. They prefer working with the men and by the time they reach us, it is already late”, she said.
She said they have hectares of land at their disposal that they want to farm on but they don’t have the strength to do that.
She said if they are provided with tractors, fertilizer, seedlings and pesticides, they will work hard to make sure that they have enough rice to feed themselves and their families and sell the rest to take care of their children’s school and other bills.
The women also complained about cattle destroying the farmlands they managed to use their strength to work on.
“We don’t receive help from the Government, and when we manage the little resources we get from our sons and daughters in the Urban centre and Europe to work on our farmlands, herds of cattle will invade our rice fields and destroy our sweat. When we took the matter to the police, nothing came out of it. Sometimes the herdsman tries to assault us with their cutlass when we confront them”, she said.
Marong said from "sawyan” to “Chuma”, they have vast hectares of land ready to be worked on every rainy season, but they can only do what their body can take to avoid having a breakdown while the farming season is on. She said after the rains, the rice they harvested could only take care of their feeding due to lack of support from the Government and projects.
She added that they are women whose lives and livelihoods depend on Agriculture and Horticulture.
“We are women, some of us are widows left with the responsibility of a large household to shelter, feed, clothe, educate and take care of emergency health-related issues. We can do more, and we want to do more if we get the support we need from the Government and Projects” " she said.
Author: Halimatou Ceesay
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