About 80% of the beneficiaries are women; and the remaining 20% are men. With this, the project is narrowing the existing disparity in the community given that women in this area are more disadvantaged regarding access to arable land, training, technology and funding.
Planning gef grant
Once successful, there could be possibilities of scaling up this project into a GEF MSP.
Notable Community Participation
Part of the 35 affiliated farmer groups consist of young vegetable growers who will be the direct beneficiaries of the project. The youth groups will be directly involved in all aspects of project implementation.
Replication of project activities
Successful project activities will be promoted among women vegetable producers with a view to promoting their replication.
Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
The Executive Committee of the Federation aims at organizing Forums to update all members as wellas sensitization meetings, issuing of progress reports that shall be disseminated to all stakeholders, and carry out field/monitoring visits.
Inovative Financial Mechanisms
The outcomes of the project will be developed into a "How-to-do" toolkit which will be disseminated through the SGP website, the grantee website and published into a booklet for wider dissemination among other CBOs, NGOs, government institutions, schools and the donor community
Capacity - Building Component
The project basically aims at building adequate capacity of the target beneficiaries on the techniques of organic farming. In this regard, several training programs are planned to be carried out from this grant: there will be a training of trainers, step down training and farm to farm visits. Also, 6 project staff members shall be trained on the techniques of organic farming.
Project sustainability
The project entails developing the capacity of members on the innovation. This is aimed at ensuring the continous application of the innovation.
Policy Influence
The project seeks to reduce complete reliance of organic fertilizers and pesticides in vegetable production.Its success will be used to lobby for national policies and legislation on the indiscriminate use of these chemical materials in horticulture.
Policy Impact
The project shall be complementing Government's efforts in promoting organic agriculture as well as addressing the objectives of the Stockholm convention on chemicals.
Planning non gef grant
The results/outcomes of the project will be used to lobby for scaling up using non- GEF funds particularly targeting other traditional donors.
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
The use of organic manures and organic pesticides in vegetable farming by the group will reduce dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides thus bringing about cost savings in the production chain. Other activities to be carried out which would bring about socioeconomic benefits will include value added processing of vegetables to prolong their shelve lives and bring about higher incomes for the women farmers.
Linkages gef projects
there are opportunities for linking up with large GEF projects whic may be operating in the area.
Project Results
? 1 Project sensitization workshop for the beneficiaries on project objectives and activities conducted for the 35 groups of the federation who are the direct beneficiaries of this project. Each of the 35 goups has a membership of about 100 persons, the majority of whom are women.
? The project acquired a plot of land in the village of Bulock in the West Coast region to serve s a demonstration/model farm where training and demonstrations of good practices and new innovations will be conducted. The piece of land was cleared, fenced and land leveled for this purpose. Acquisition of a ?Model? farmland for the Project.
- The model farm amounting to 5 hectares was fenced, cleared, stumped of weeds, leveled and divided into compartments of beds for the participating federation members.
? In November 2016, a training programme lasting for 5 days was conducted for 111 members drawn from the federation on nursery management covering such topics as seed propagation techniques, crop spacing,weeding techniques, watering and crop hygiene.
? Sensitized 35 women vegetable growers on the advantages of compost manure over chemical fertilizer
? Trained 70 women farmers on Compost preparation with a practical demonstration at the model farm for selected representatives of all 35 federation members. The compost training topics included such topics as: selection of composting materials, site selection, materials required, compost preparation stages including mixing of the materials, watering and turning up of the compost, stages of compost maturity and their identification and how to use the compost on crops.
- Each of the 70 women trained went back to their respective villages and trained 5 members of their federation making a total of 350 women farmers who were trained on compost making and organic pesticide preparation.
? Constructed Life fencing using Lucenia to improve soil fertility on project site
? At the conclusion of the training, a "How-to-Manual" on composting was prepared. The booklet was printed in hard copies and circulated among federation members, SGP and other partners. It was uploaded into the Gambia homepage on the SGP website and the grantee also uploaded a copy unto "Communities Connect" platform to share worldwide.
? Rehabilitated the old well at project site to provide water for gardening activities.
- From November 2016 to July 2017, the federation members harvested 700 kgs of onions, 250 kgs of egg plants, 55 kg of pepper and sold young onion seedlings all of which generated a revenue of D26, 500
- The yields have increased slightly when they were compared with those of last year during which the women relied exclusively on chemical ferilizers and pesticides to enhance productivity.
- The total area of land under production also increased slightly from 35 hectares to 39 hectares. Although it is too early to determine any improvements in the health of the women, it is safe to say that since the women would now be able to produce vegetables all year round compared to the previous years when vegetable production is restricted only to the dry season, the availability of fresh vegetables throughout the year would contribute to improving their nutritional status and that of their families.In the wet season, pest infestation is very high but with the application of organic pesticides made from the neem seeds, their incidences have been reduced to economic levels.
- The women who are part of a federation operate a cooperative organisation that does the marketing of their produce to nearby growth centres. During the course of SGP support, all 35 federation members received management training in project management, M&E, book keeping, processing to extend the shelf life of their produce and thereby increase their overall income levels.
- In previous years, each hectare of the women's' garden uses 1 bag of NPK and 4 bags of Urea amounting to 250 kg. On 39 hectares, 8, 750 kg of chemical fertilizer are used annually costing about D6, 526,500 per production cycle. With the SGP project, there was total reliance on organic fertilizer costing about D15, 000 per garden and this figure goes down subsequently as it includes the purchase of working tools that are used continuously.With the application of organic fertilizer, the total cost on the 39 hectares amount to D585, 000 thus giving the women an annual saving of D5, 941,500. This figure averages to D152, 346 per federation. From these figures, it can be seen that there was a reduction of 8, 750 kg use by the women on the 39 hectares cultivated thus giving an average reduction of 224 kg of chemical fertilizer.
- Each of the 35 federation, received on average D116, 500 income with the support from SGP with one federation receiving D26, 500 from sale of produce.
