Gambia’s Soil Offers Fresh Impetus

Whilst the country entirely depends on foreign market for Irish potato, the trend seems to be taking a different direction as an industrious young man has intervened in its cultivation to make a paradigm shift in the production of the crop.

Young Thomas Kargbo, a Sierra Leonean national now living in the Gambia has crafted new techniques by using the Lamin Women Horticultural Garden Centre (Borehole) to prove that the importation of Irish potato can be brought to a stop.
His innovative techniques do not only stop at this: Kargbo’s garden produces crops such as onions, carrots, cucumbers, and sweet potatoes that are highly needed in the country’s local markets.

potatoes eaten in Gambia are exported
The unique thing about Thomas’s farming productivity is the production of Irish potato in a part of the country that has hardly experienced such cultivation, making him the second person after M.A. Kharafi Farm – a farming merchant in Kafuta - to embark on production of the crop in The Gambia.

“We have various crops being cultivated here such as onions, cabbages, sweet potatoes, sweet pepper, cucumbers, and other crops,” Thomas explained.
“And right now I have introduced a new crop in the garden, which is Irish potato. This was never cultivated here. I have made a try and it has come out very well; the fruit of my labour went beyond my expectation, because I tried it thinking it will not do well, but to my surprise, God did very well for me. With just 40 kg of the seed I planted I have been able to get 500 kg from it; so it is a very big surprise to me; I therefore thank God for that.”

Thomas’s story worth thousand applauds, for the fact that a Norwegian tried and failed to produce the same product in the same land some twelve years ago.
His garden is 0.03 hectares of land allocated to him by women of the garden centre, who gave their right hand to Thomas, after a retired agriculturalist, Haruna Manneh offered to supervise the young man.

To many, Thomas’s venture is a miracle, as he puts it: “It was in fact a big surprise to the people in the garden when they saw how the crop was blossoming up to its harvest today. This is something they had not seen before on the garden; thus, it has been a big surprise to them. Whenever they come to the garden some would come and see and even touch it for them to believe that ‘yes this truly is Irish potato’.”

Explaining the modus operandi, he said: “Because [some of] this crop takes hundred days before it is fully ready for harvesting. At the 85th day you should stop applying fertilizer and chemical; you continue to give only water for the rest of the 15 days to complete the 100 days.”

Thomas continued: “This crop would go for about three months ten days. I am harvesting right now in April. And after harvesting I have to wait till the next planting season, because this is a crop you cannot plant in the raining season. We start planting around October and go on to the cold season, because this is a crop that needs cold weather and atmosphere: that is why we start it immediately after the raining season. By early January we start to harvest; and we can plant again around December to be able to harvest around this time in April before the rains set in.”

Kargbo is a certified marketer, who worked with M.A. Kharafi - a massive producer of Irish potato and other market crops in The Gambia - as a storekeeper for about two years before setting off on his own.
Over this period he was able to learn the skill through the company’s engineer brought in from abroad to produce the crop.

“The engineer the company brought into this country to produce the potato crop became my best friend,” the young farmer explained. “I really gained favour from him; so time to time I would ask him certain questions as regards the crop and he would answer me outright. That’s how I learned the skill.

“And when I was about to embark on my first try, I went there of late and saw the crop germinating by itself. I thought in my mind that if I put this under the soil and give it water as I used to see it being done on the farm, something might come out of it; so I bought 40 kg of seeds from the company which I used to plant.”
In this time of crop failure in The Gambia, that has formally been declared by the Government of The Gambia, Mr Kargbo has been able to add onto the produce of the land with such a highly needed foodstuff.

Agriculture is the economic foundation of many sub-Saharan countries, employing more than 60 per cent of the region’s workforce and accounting for some 30 per cent of gross domestic product. Africa, therefore, needs increased productivity in its agriculture and higher incomes in its rural areas and communities. And this is what Kargbo aims to contribute to not only in The Gambia but also other parts of Africa.