Bakau women gardeners lament challenges as KM Mayor visits site

The women made this call during a recent visit to the area by the mayor of Kanifing Municipality, Talib Ahmed Bensounda as part of his ‘Meet the People’s Tour’.

“We are blessed with a fertile land producing great vegetables in the country but they don’t last long after production. This is due to the lack of cold storage facilities. We will be happy if the Mayor can render his help in this sector so we can boost our income and country’s agricultural development,” says Aja Sally Kaba, president of Bakau Women’s Gardeners Association.

She described water as another challenge they face, further calling on Mayor Bensouda to support them in that regard.

“We want our water facilities to be little modernised instead of fetching water with buckets, we want pipes or other means to make our work easy and fast.” she added.

Tijan Bojang, a Senior Agric Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, underscored the importance of vegetable production in any nation’s development.

 “Agriculture is the best way to empower a nation and we can be food self-sufficient if investment and proper management is put into the sector. The Bakau garden is producing great part of vegetables produced in the country. Thus, we need to support the place with facilities they need to avoid waste of produce.” he added.

Responding to some of the concerns raised by the women, Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda assured them of his plans to invest millions in supporting them with farming machines to help ease their worries.