By: Mama A. Touray
New Jeshwang, Ebo Town women gardeners, in an exclusive interview with The Network, lamented the lack of space to continue their gardening as the authorities allegedly sold their garden space in Jeshwang.
Sibi Saidy, a resident of Ebo Town whose source of livelihood depends on gardening and marketing, said: “Gardening is what we do for a living. We sell at the market, and after that, we come to the garden. At this point, we don’t have a place to even do our gardening because in Jeshwang, where we garden, they have sold the place. The only place left is at the back of the school where we do our small gardening.”
She continued: “At this point, there are people who want to work, but due to the lack of space to garden, they can’t. When we say, ‘Let’s work,’ and we have no place to work, it will definitely be a problem. They have sold all the available land and dug holes just to frustrate us.”
In an emotional tone, Sibi said: “We, the women, do not have power; our power relies on this gardening, so help us.”
She added that after the gardening, they give the space to other people who cultivate rice, and when those people are done, they hand the space back to them to continue gardening.
Isatou Ceesay, a resident of New Jeshwang, told The Fatu Network that the garden has over three hundred gardeners and that they are faced with many challenges, such as water shortages and lack of access to fertilizer. She also mentioned that they do not have their own garden, and the space they are occupying is not fenced.
She said that as a result of the unfenced space, animals disturb their vegetables and eventually destroy their crops. “If we have support for a borehole and fencing, we will be happy,” she said.
“We do gardening in the dry season, and during the rainy season, we return the land to the owners to farm rice. We are calling on authorities and philanthropists to come to our aid so that we can have our own garden to farm both during the dry and rainy seasons,” she added.
Another challenge highlighted by Sibi Saidy was the lack of fertilizer. “Having access to fertilizer is difficult, and if you are to buy it, it’s you, as the woman, who will buy it for yourself. If you don’t have money for three to four bags of fertilizer, you will face challenges because one bag cannot sustain your crops. In fact, buying two, three, or four bags of fertilizer is not easy. Even if you want to buy them, you think of your children and what you will give them.”
She added: “If the crops are not covered with fertilizer, you lose your crops, and it becomes a great loss. If you want to have healthy, fresh, and nice crops, you need to have fertilizer.”
