Gambia

General Information

· Main climates: Tropical Steppe and Semiarid, Tropical Wet and Dry

· Total land area: 1 000 000 ha

· Internal renewable water resources: 3 km³

· Incoming water flow: 5 km³

· GNP per capita, 1998: PPP$ -

· Main food consumed: Rice, Millet & sorghum, Oil & fat, Sugar & honey, Wheat

· Rice supply, 1999: 134.5 kg paddy/capita/year

Basic Statistics

Producing Zones and Cropping Seasons

Rice is planted mainly in the central to western parts of the countries. The following table shows the rice-harvested areas from different producing zones.

Most of rice crops are planted during rainy season. In irrigated areas a second rice crop may be grown.

Production Practices

The following figure shows the harvested areas from different ecologies during the last five years. The tidal wetland (or mangrove) is the dominant in the category of other ecologies.

Upland rice is grown as a mono-crop or as in a mixture with other food crops following the slash-and-burn shifting cultivation almost without any application of chemical fertilizer and other ago-chemical. Women are the dominant farmers who cultivated small (from few hundred to few thousand square meters) rainfed lowland, tidal wetland and irrigated rice fields. A number of improved rice varieties have been released for cultivation.

In rainfed lowland and tidal wetland systems, land preparation for lowland rice is done mainly manually, while power tillers are used in preparing irrigated rice fields. Transplanting is the dominant crop establishment. Farmers generally do not apply much fertilizer.

Constraints and Issues of Sustainable Production

There are several constraints to sustainable rice production in Gambia. Following are the majors:

• Drought in upland areas and drought and flash flood in rainfed lowland (or inland swamp) and tidal wetland (or mangrove) areas due to irregular weather

• Inadequate and Irregular input supplies: seeds, fertilizer and credit

• Lack of small farm equipment especially for post harvest operations

• Poor maintenance of developed swamps

• Poor drainage, Iron toxicity in undeveloped swamps

• Lack of effective farmer's organization and co-operative

• Lack of well-defined rice policies

• Poor road networks and marketing systems

• Weak research and extension support

Sustainable rice production depends greatly on appropriate policy to provide farmers with support in inputs supply and marketing of products.

Research and Development Institutes

· Gambia Co-operative Union P.O. Box 505, Kanifing, Phone: 392581 Telex: 2270 COOPS GV Fax: 392582

· Rice Experimental Station, Jenoi

· Sapu Agricultural Research Station, Seed Multiplication Unit, Department of Agriculture, Maccharty Island Division, Banjul

· Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, Cape St. Mary, Bakau

· Yundum Research Station, Department of Agricultural Research, P.O. Box 739 Yundum, Gambia

· SAPU Agricultural Station, Department of Agricultural Research, Cape St. Mary HQ, Bakau, Banjul, Gambia

· National Agricultural Research Institute, PMB 526, Serekunda, The Gambia, Phone: (220) 48-47-25/47-28-75/67-80-73, Fax: (220) 48-49-27/47-28-75 Department of Planning, Department of State for Agriculture, No. 5 Marina Parade, Banjul, Tel.: (220) 228751, Fax: (220) 224851

· Programmes and Projects, Department of State for Agriculture, The Quadrange, Banjul, Tel.: (220) 229817, Fax: (220) 201187