Lumo: Creating Markets for Women Gardeners in Rural Gambia

Nyima Jadama ànd her team

In Urban Gambia, we have main markets like Banjul Albert Market, Serrekunda, Latrikunda Sabiji, and Brikama Markets where women go daily to sell vegetables they cultivate in the Gardens.

Rural Gambia has weekly Lumos (local Markets) that are held in major administrative villages such as Farafenni, where women go to sell their farms, and Garden produce to traders and individual customers.

The women also engaged in Trade by barter in these lumos, where they could exchange one good for another without using cash in the transaction.

In Farafenni, this medium caught up with Nyima Jadama and a group of women gardeners who make use of the Lumo to sell Onions, Tomatoes, Bitter Tomatoes, Garden eggs, Cabbages, Sorrel and greens.

Nyima is among many women in Farafenni who till the soil from the rainy season to the dry season to feed her family.

Speaking to this medium on Sunday, 21st July 2024, Nyima Jadama said she brought vegetables to sell at the Lumo.

She said, “The money our men gave us is no longer enough to take care of ourselves and our children and cook enough meals for the Family. This is why we look forward to the Lumo, where we sell vegetables we grow in our Gardens".

She added that they have a vast Garden in “sawyan” in Dibba Kunda, Farafenni, where they cultivate vegetables. She said they manage to fence it using logs but that does not stop animals from entering and destroying their crops. She said they have one borehole in the Garden but it is not enough for the over 300 women who cultivate vegetables in that Garden.

She said they also dug wells to compliment the Borehole, which goes dry after watering a few beds of vegetables. She said the wells they dig do not last long due to sand invasion, which makes them fall.

“We are trying our best but things are very hard for women. A tin of seedlings of onions costs D3500 to D4000, and sometimes we buy it in groups of two or three and share it, which is not enough. I have more than 20 beds that I worked on and plant varieties of vegetables and I spent a lot of money to buy seedlings, pesticides, and fertilizers.” She said.

She added that the Garden is huge and they can do more if they have the support they need.

 
“We need another borehole to curb the water crisis we are faced with. We need seedlings, fertilizers and pesticides. If we have all these, we will work harder to cultivate more vegetables that we can sell at the Lumo and also use the rest to feed our families,” she said.

She said the money realised from the sale of the vegetables at the Lumo goes to feeding, clothing, and medicine for the sick among other necessities.

At the Lumo, we also met with women from the neighbouring villages, including Senegal, who come to sell their produce and buy clothes for their families.

Traders from the Urban Gambia also used the Lumo as an opportunity to buy the things they needed at a cheaper price and resell them. 

Author: Halimatou Ceesay