Report on the Gambia / Colonial Office.

Date:
[1957]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the Gambia / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/106 (page 8)
    deposits are found. Other developments, such as the improvement of the airfield at Yundum and the opening of a modern hotel at Bathurst have assisted the economy, but a recent decision of certain airlines to use aircraft of greater range and to cease night-stops at Bathurst is going to mean a reduction in local income and employ¬ ment. The near-completion of the Trans-Gambia Road, connecting Dakar in the Senegal to Ziquinchor in the Casamance, and the provision of new Gambian-operated ferries across the River Gambia will give the French a much-needed improvement in their communi¬ cations, and will also provide some small additional revenue for the Gambia. The Gambia Oilseeds Marketing Board continued to play a vital part in the country’s economy. Through it the territory’s ex¬ portable crops, mainly groundnuts, are collected, shipped and sold, and in turn seednuts and insecticides, etc., are distributed. In March, 1957, the Government decided that the time had come to review the Board’s activities in order to make improvements which might be considered desirable for the benefit of the Gambia in general and especially of the farming community. Following this an adviser with knowledge of similar marketing boards in other territories was appointed to review the membership, functions, organisation and operation of the Gambia Oilseeds Marketing Board and to report thereon to Government with recommendations. The Adviser arrived later in the year and has submitted his report which the Government still has under consideration. AGRICULTURE, ANIMAL HEALTH AND FISHERIES While groundnuts continue to be the main cash crop of the Gambia, progress has been made in food production. In particular, the in¬ crease in the production of rice has been encouraging. Having enlarged the area under cultivation by the construction of access causeways into the more fertile swamplands nearer the river, by the bridging of creeks and by contract mechanical ploughing of rice lands, steps have now been taken to increase the productive capacity of these rice lands. A rice expert from India has done very valuable work in the Central and MacCarthy Island Divisions; village rice plots have been used to demonstrate improved techniques and con¬ siderable propaganda by word of mouth and film will, it is believed, have the effect of raising the status of rice cultivation from being a woman’s crop to a family endeavour. The former Colonial Development Corporation rice farm in the MacCarthy Island Division in the middle river district of the Pro¬ tectorate, which was taken over by the Gambia Government, has increased both its acreage and yield, and in addition to conducting experiments in varieties of rice and the chemical control of weeds, etc., it has made encouraging progress in the cultivation of rice in partnership with neighbouring villages.