A study on family farm-enterprise of producers in rural communities of the Gambia

Abstract

The agricultural systems of the Gambia entirely depend on rain-fed agriculture, and it propels economic growth. Agriculture's contribution to the Gambia's GDP is 22%. The Gambia's economy   heavily depends on agriculture and provides 30–40% of the country's foreign exchange earnings.   Family farm enterprise is a lucrative business, but limited research work has been done to determine its economic contributions in improving the livelihoods of producers. The problem statement of the research work is to identify knowledge gap, finance, and markets of family farm producers to enhance production capacity, yield and income. The objective identifies the contribution of family enterprise to the economy, and to address the challenges that affects profitability. The study applied a purposive sampling technique for qualitative and quantitative approaches. The methodology of data collection was focus group discussion, key informants’ interviews and review of secondary data from other research work. A total of (5) focus group discussions, (90) interviews and (10) key informants was conducted in 3 agricultural regions. The results showed female participates immensely in family farm production than male of 443 and 25 respectively. The result showed positive contribution in socio-economic development were North Bank Region scored D2, 709,225 while lowest income earned was Central River Region amounting to D279,700.00 respectively. In conclusion, family farm enterprises can boost local economy of rural communities enhancing livelihoods. Thus, recommend government to create easy access to finance, market and training on business management skills for the family members engaged in agriculture as a business entity.