Supplying Rice

The main staple for families in The Gambia. Most traditional Gambian dishes rely on Rice as a base, so it is an important part of the diet. The Gambia grows a very small quantity of rice in some of the River Gambia's floodplains, but not nearly enough to supply even a fraction of the community. This results in rice being a major import.

The Covid Years were devastating for everyone in The Gambia. Over 70% of the GDP of The Gambia is Tourist related. So when the lockdown happened it resulted in no tourists. In a country where there is no unemployment benefit, the results were seriously bad. No tourists, No work, No money, No food, the rest is obvious. Just like Europe, schools were closed. When kids go to school they get a meal, so no school no meal.

I was a bit concerned, so I decided to start sending sacks of rice to the village for families who were struggling. While the sacks were delivered to compounds with kids, we know that it was shared widely in the community. No one in a community ever starves. Everything is shared.

At the start of Covid restrictions a 50 kilo sack of basic rice cost just under £20 by November 2022, when tourists started to return the same sack was about £25. We are still topping up the supply of rice to the school, and it is still going up in price.