Land ownership in The Gambia is a complicated issue. It lives at the intersection of traditional customs, legal processes, competing needs, and momentum from the public sector and local NGOs towards more equitable governance.  Many women face significant disadvantages in owning land due to long-standing customs that govern land distribution within...

FISH4ACP is an initiative of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) to support sustainable fisheries and aquaculture development. The five-year value chain (VC) development programme (2020 to 2025) is implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with funding from the European Union...

Across many parts of rural Gambia, women farmers often start their days before dawn to ensure that they have enough water to irrigate their gardens and to cook, clean and bathe at home. “Some of us would wake up as early as 3.00 a.m. to 4.00 a.m. just to get water....

They are dotted with riverine vegetation, palm and hardwood trees. They are speckled with salt flats, savanna and mangrove creeks. At the first glance, the forests and the woodlands of the Gambia, tinged in different shades of green, look menacing and breathtaking in equal measure. Adorned with an array of prominent...

Action Aid International gathered stakeholders on Tuesday to discuss ways to improve agro-ecology and eco-restoration on the Gambia's south, middle, and north banks, with the goal of ensuring community resilience to climate change, achieving food security, climate justice, and comprehensive disaster prevention. The Agroecology, Eco-Restoration, and Resilience Building Project, according...

The dense fumes of fishmeal factories in the Gambia are like dark clouds obscuring the future of women in the country’s fisheries. In the Gambia, 10 percent of the 2.2 million inhabitants derive their livelihoods from fisheries, with activities concentrated in the artisanal fishing communities of Kartong, GunjurSanyangTanji, Brufut, Bakau and...

ActionAid International in Gambia, in collaboration with Njawara Agricultural Training Centre (NATC), is implementing a three-year project called “Promoting Agroecology and Eco-restoration Practices” with the goal of improving environmental protection and promoting climate resilient sustainable agricultural practices. The Project manager said, “It is urgent to promote agroecological farming practices, support...

Farmers and media practitioners – both need access to reliable sources of information to do their work well. Farmers must have appropriate information and opportunities to learn so that they can make better informed decisions to cope with daunting challenges, such as climate change.

The National Committees for Family Farming in Indonesia and Colombia have promoted processes of political dialogue between key players in Family Farming, leading to the approval of new regulations for the development of Family Farming in their respective countries. In Indonesia, the Law on the Protection and Empowerment of Farmers in...

Growing populations and consumption patterns are squeezing forests – especially through industrial agriculture. But many of the 1.5 billion people who live within the world’s remaining forest landscapes are farmers too, albeit smallholders. Many grow and protect trees. Most also hunt and gather from the forest. Forests provide them with...

Many West and Central African countries are fortunate to have abundant water resources. However, these resources are unevenly distributed across the region and are mostly untapped. Less than three percent of the region’s arable land benefits from some form of strategic water management. At the same time, many countries face...

Smallholder farmers in Gambia are increasingly facing climate related induced disasters and vulnerabilities affecting their lives and livelihoods. During 2010-2012, farmers faced flash floods, periods of drought, disease infestation, saline intrusion, deforestation and massive erosion of their farmlands resulting in crop failure and reduced food security. ActionAid has introduced agroecological...

Climate change represents a challenge for rural people in West and Central Africa, causing water shortages and droughts in some areas and floods in others. It impacts both the demand and availability of water for agriculture, affecting the proportion of people suffering from insecure access to water. Smallholder farmers are...

The first report of the REGIONAL OBSERVATORY OF ROPPA (OFF/ROPPA) FAMILY FARMS deals with four questions that delivers successively (i) a farmer reading of the behavior of the West African family farms during the last two farming seasons; (ii) a status of the proximity support and extension from which these...

In order to face this development challenge, IFAD’s Livestock and Horticulture Development Project, focusing mainly on women (who are the main producers and managers of rice, vegetables and small ruminants) and the youth, aims to help small-scale rural producers to increase their incomes by improving the yield and quality of...

In the framework of the project “Adapting small-scale irrigation to climate change in West and Central Africa”, farmers from Gambia talk about the devastating impacts of climate change on their farming activities and crops, leading to crop failure and food insecurity. They also describe the measures they adopted to build...

Since the establishment of the FAO Representation in the Republic of the Gambia in 1979, FAO has provided vital support to the development of agriculture and natural resource sectors in the country. The Organization has implemented more than 120 projects, also facilitating policy formulation and the development of programmes and...

Smallholder farmers in Gambia are increasingly facing climate related induced disasters and vulnerabilities affecting their lives and livelihoods. During 2010-2012, farmers faced flash floods, periods of drought, disease infestation, saline intrusion, deforestation and massive erosion of their farmlands resulting in crop failure and reduced food security. ActionAid has introduced agroecological...

The Gambia is one of Africa’s poorest nations, ranking 175th out of 188 countries in the United Nations Development Programme’s 2015 Human Development Index. Income poverty and household food insecurity are widespread, with nearly half the population living below the absolute poverty line. Poverty is higher in rural areas compared...

A nationwide programme to transfer government-owned forest land to local communities is changing lives in The Gambia while promoting the sustainable management of its forests. As communities manage forest affairs and benefit from the proceeds from forest resources, more forest-friendly livelihoods such as beekeeping and soap making are boosting incomes...