By Dr Ousman Gajigo
Recently, the government announced a temporary restriction on the importation of potatoes and onions, ostensibly to protect local producers. On the surface, this seems like a good decision. However, on a closer inspection, it is not the action of a government that is serious about supporting local industry or farmers, particularly smallholders.
Let’s look at the onion situation in the country today. The Gambia consumes about 30,000 tons annually, of which approximately 80% is imported. The main producers of onions in The Gambia are smallholder farmers who cultivate vegetables in village gardens, most of them women. Those onions start to reach the market around March and April each year. In addition to these mostly women vegetable farmers, a growing number of private agribusiness firms – both Gambian and foreign – are becoming active in the agricultural sector.
Even though The Gambia imports most of the onions consumed, the country is capable of not only producing what we consume but exporting as well. An output of 30,000 tons of onions can be produced by just a fraction of the village gardens and private farms in The Gambia, given the attainable yields of 25 to 40 tons per hectare. Such a level of output requires less than 1000 hectares of land. The key question is: why are our local farmers not producing the required level of onions to make imports unnecessary?
The answer is that Gambian smallholder horticultural farmers are almost completely forgotten when it comes to support from the central government. The main problems faced by women vegetable growers are high costs of quality seeds, poor fencing, lack of water, and inadequate storage after harvest. Having visited more than 100 vegetable farms and listened firsthand to their concerns, I can attest to these problems.
Another aspect of the seed problem is that Gambian vegetable growers are not receiving support in terms of access to the latest developments in seed varieties. Specifically, the onion seeds available in The Gambia can only be cultivated in the dry season, but new varieties exist that can be grown during the rainy season. Unfortunately, our local farmers do not have access to these varieties because the government has not made the acquisition of these varieties a priority.
The current decision by the government does almost nothing to address these fundamental problems. The government had an opportunity to address these issues in the 2026 budget but chose to allocate nothing to farmers growing these crops. Our poor women farmers continue to toil in their vegetable gardens day in and day out without earning significant returns. The problems they face during production and marketing remain unaddressed. Consequently, the government’s temporary moratorium on imports is just a performative stunt that does not address the real problems faced by Gambian farmers and consumers.
As a result of these longstanding problems, the quantity and quality of farmers’ harvests of all vegetables in The Gambia are far lower than they should be. Consequently, the country ends up importing vegetables that we should easily be able to grow locally. These increased imports worsen our trade deficit, which increases depreciation pressure on our currency and further elevates the already high cost of living.
The government’s decision to resort to temporary import restrictions simply ensures that the problem will be a recurrent one, and they will be forced to address it each year in an increasingly ineffective manner. After all, without addressing the production and marketing challenges, local production will only cover a few months of consumption.
What’s more, this import restriction provides increasing opportunities for corrupt behavior by senior government officials. After all, it should not be lost on anyone that the only reason these import restrictions are in place is because of the presence of large-scale foreign agribusiness firms operating in Foni rather than small-scale women vegetable growers. Local Gambian women have been growing onions for decades, and the government has never taken any such measures. Only the recent entrance of deep-pocketed agribusiness firms has pushed the government to take this action.
Addressing the vegetable sector properly requires the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry to work together. The lack of required coordination across the two sectors and the loud silence from the Ministry of Agriculture on this issue is all one needs to know to realize the lack of seriousness of this government.
