Jainaba Manneh, a 37-year-old farmer from Jolie in Kiang West District, Lower River Region, said farming has changed her life.
Jainaba is the breadwinner in her family; she channeled her passion into farming to provide for her family.
She cultivates 10 to15 beds (10m x 1m) of vegetables such as bitter tomatoes, onions, and cabbage in an FAO-supported vegetable garden.
“Gardening is what takes care of my family’s needs,” she says. “I have children some of whom are going to school; hence I must work to pay the bills and place food on the table.”
Jainaba describes horticulture as a satisfying labour with a decent profit margin.
“Access to the garden, water, and good roads to transport produce to the highway was a major problem,” she pointed out. “We paid men to dig wells but drawing water from these wells was a daunting task; hence we hardly could sleep when we get back home due to the pain and fatigue.”
She also says: “The only way we could sell our vegetables is taking the risk of waking up as early as 03:00 a.m. to join the only vehicle that goes from Jolie to Manduar each day.”
Sometimes they walk through forested areas to get to traders in Manduar, she narrated, saying that most of their vegetables get spoiled especially during warm weather, “affecting our financial income”.
The 37-year-old lady said the AFEG Project of FAO has fenced a 5-hectare land area and provided their garden with solar irrigation systems and a feeder road linking the community garden to Manduar.
“The entire community members are relieved for having this support,” Jainaba pointed out, saying: “Ice trucks selling fish can now reach Jolie; this was impossible five months ago.
“Vegetable yields increased, because stray animals can no longer have access to the crops, and traders can now buy harvested vegetables in the community.”
Jainaba commended FAO for taking the project to Jolie, saying the project improves the lives of people in Jolie.
She also called for the building of feeder roads for 11 communities to get access to markets, especially for women.
The AFEG and FAO-funded Project is also being implemented in the North Bank, Lower River, Central and Upper River regions to address food insecurity and malnutrition.
