Jahaly and Pacharr Smallholder Project

Jahaly and Pacharr Smallholder Project

Rice is one of the Gambia’s staple foods, but domestic production is not sufficient. Yet there is a significant potential for rice cultivation in the swamplands along the River Gambia. The project assisted the government in its drive to stabilize and expand rice production through improved technology and expansion of areas under irrigation.

The project’s objective was to increase rice production while improving the income, nutrition and living conditions of smallholder farming households, and particularly of women. Women are traditionally the main rice growers, working in difficult conditions in swamplands.  A goal of the project was to develop a large area in the Jahaly and Pacharr swamps for irrigation and improved swamp rice cultivation. Improved water management would permit introduction of higher-yielding rice varieties and the use of fertilizer.

Efforts to improve living conditions for farmers’ households included introducing day care centres to relieve the burden of women farmers and provide primary health care, and creating village cereal banks to ensure a measure of food security. The project also provided for credit and marketing services and training of extension workers.

During the one-year period required for land development, food aid in the form of rice was delivered to farmers who temporarily lost the use of land. In return for food, farmers offered their labour for land development works.

One of the broader aims of the project was to assist the government in building institutional and technical capacities, both to handle new irrigation development opportunities and also to exploit the rice-growing potential of swampland along the length of the River Gambia.

Source: IFAD