Background

Economic history of rural Gambia

The basic question of this article is, to what extent two centuries of widespread cash crops production and relations to the world economy have promoted an understanding of market economy in rural Gambia. Further, how have the relations been between the Gambian farmer and the world market?

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Main Sectors of The Gambian Economy

The Gambia is heavily dependent upon agriculture, which in the late 1990's accounted for a quarter of the GDP. This dependency becomes even clearer when we look at the labour force, where three quarters are engaged in agriculture. Further, agriculture mostly consists of subsistence farming, livestock raising and cultivation of groundnuts for export.

Agriculture

The Gambia: The complexity of modernizing the agricultural Sector in Africa

Our library presents a thorough analysis (Fyhri, 1998) of the modernising process of the agricultural sector in Africa, the case studied being The Gambia. From the summary:
   Real "modernisation" is not dependent on the success of modernising strategies performed by the national authorities. On the contrary, this study has shown, through comparing different geographical and decision making levels that the farmers are important decisionmakers in this process through their responses to external conditions. In fact the farmers seem to be the real exponents of modernisation; a modernisation defined by their own needs. 
   The farmers are responding in such a manner that their economical situation is stable and uncertainty is limited. Further, focusing on the differences in perceptions between the agricultural authorities and the farmers has shown a rather modified picture of the development, which not at all is strictly negative for the farming household. Contrary to conventional wisdom, with the basis at a household scale, the agricultural sector of The Gambia is not stagnant, but transforming.... 

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Millet harvest in Balingho

Land use
Major Gambian Land Use Zones

The patterns of land use in The Gambia are related to the different vegetation zones. These again depend heavily on the fluvial influence and soil conditions, as the climatic conditions are relatively homogeneous all over the country. In an overview, it can be stated that the mangroves are fairly untouched by human action and the floodplains are used for irrigated agriculture (e.g. rice) and to some extent for grazing and firewood gathering. The plateau, on the other hand, is subject to rain fed agriculture (mainly food staples and groundnuts) with fallow periods of differing duration, large scale extensive grazing, firewood gathering and different types of human settlement and edification.

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History

Introduction of the groundnut to The Gambia

In the Western Sudan, the groundnut is one of the most important cash crops and food staple nowadays. Unlike the African bambara groundnut, it is not an indigenous species, but was brought by Portuguese traders from the Americas in the 16th century. It quickly spread through the Sudan due to its high nutrition values, draught resistance and later, as a product of long distance trade for its oils. Now it is one of the main agricultural products of landscapes that far apart as The Gambia and Northern Cameroon.

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