In The Gambia’s Central River Region, women are growing, spinning and weaving cotton into products that earn income and sustain cultural traditions. Their work offers a starting point for a wider revival of a sector that once supported thousands of rural farmers.
By Yero S. Bah, bird story agency
Before women in Njau Sawalo began growing cotton again, Foddy Ceesay would travel from one weekly market to another looking for the fibre her community used for marriages and naming ceremonies.
Cotton was difficult to find and expensive, she said. Now, the women grow their own and use it to make products ranging from wrappers to book covers.
“We used to buy it very costly. But now we farm it ourselves. We no longer purchase it but sell it to others. We now save the money we used to buy it, and selling it ourselves brings us further funds,” said Ceesay.
She is among the women taking part in a cotton project led by Women Initiative Gambia (WIG), through Reforest Future The Gambia, in the country’s Central River Region. The project aims to restore cotton-growing and processing skills while creating income from finished products.
Isatou Ceesay, who founded the initiative, said 30 women have been trained in parts of the cotton value chain, including planting, growing, spinning, weaving, design and marketing. The project also supports the transfer of cultural and traditional knowledge associated with cotton.
The project has been running for three years, she said, and more than 50 women have benefited in some way with 40 women cultivating 1.5 acres at the centre alone.
The women make products including wrappers, shirts, tablecloths, bags and book covers. Tourists visiting the Reforest Future centre in Njau are among their main customers, Isatou Ceesay said.
The women’s efforts come as The Gambia’s Industrial and Diversification Policy 2025–2035 identifies cotton among the sectors to be supported through a proposed Productivity and Innovation Centre in Farafenni. The policy envisages equipment, training and quality-testing services to help small enterprises and cooperatives improve production. It also sets aside a minimum of 30% of resources under a planned Industrial Finance Facility for women- and youth-owned enterprises.
Dr Lamin Dibba, director of research at the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), under the Ministry of Agriculture, said initiatives such as WIG have renewed hopes for the sector. He said NARI is keen to work with private individuals and farmer groups on technical support, research and training.
For participants, the work has both economic and cultural value.
Jamil Ceesay from Njau Sawalo, has been a member of WIG for three years. She said she has learned to weave shirts, wrappers and book covers, giving her skills she can use to earn a living.
Cotton also has a place in naming ceremonies and funeral practices in her community, she explained.
“It is extremely significant for us,” she said.
She has sold several of the items she has woven. “Whatever we weave, it gets sold off. Even though the weaving is tedious,” she noted.
Rocky Secka also from Njau Sawalo, said cotton had become difficult to find before the women started cultivating it.
“Culturally and economically, it is bringing us some little funds whenever we sell some of the finished products such as tablecloths, book covers, and shirts or wrappers,” she said.
Secka is learning weaving, drawing and book-cover design, alongside other skills and cultural knowledge associated with cotton.
Foddy Ceesay said the project has made cotton easier and cheaper to access for cultural occasions while providing an opportunity to earn from products such as wrappers, tablecloths and book covers.
“We sell each book cover for D500 (US$7),” she said.
From skills to income
Mansata Sarjo, Isatou Ceesay’s daughter, is among the women who have trained in cotton weaving through the project. She learned to weave wrappers, bags and purses from Ousman Sambou in Gunjur, in the West Coast Region.
“I can weave wrappers, shirts, bags and purses. Cotton has endless importance, economically, culturally and skill-wise,” Sarjo said.
Finished items sell for between D500 (about US$7) and D2,500 (about US$34) depending on the product.
Sambou said he has taught weaving, marketing and cultural knowledge to women in Gunjur, Kerewan Samba Sira and Njau through the project.
“I feel happy whenever I see women being empowered economically, culturally and traditionally,” he said.
Isatou Ceesay said the initiative uses savings boxes to help members put aside money from sales. She said more than 40 women in Central River Region North had benefited from the farm-to-cloth project and that each had saved at least D4,000 (US$55).
The women also use what they call a “development box”, with D50 deducted from each sale for their future financial independence.
Ceesay described cotton as the “logo of the African identity”. She said the initiative’s work is about preserving knowledge as well as creating economic opportunities.
“If we don’t revive cotton today, the next generation will lose it. This means they will lose our cultural and traditional identities and knowledge as Africans,” she said.
Rebuilding after decline
Cotton has long been a source of rural livelihoods in The Gambia. In the 2001/02 growing season, the country had 3,429 registered cotton farmers and 3,117 hectares under cultivation, according to a Gambia–European Community report.
A 2007 World Bank report recorded a steep decline in The Gambia’s cotton sector, from around 3,000 tonnes of seed cotton in the mid-1990s to approximately 200 tonnes. The report said the GAMCOT ginnery in Basse had a capacity of 10,000 tonnes but was operating well below that level and making substantial losses.
The report identified erratic rainfall, pest infestations, high input costs, weak farmer support and poor returns compared with alternative crops among the pressures facing the sector.
Seed-cotton production subsequently declined from around 3,000 tonnes in the mid-1990s to about 200 tonnes, according to the report. It identified erratic rainfall, pest infestations, high input costs, weak farmer support and poor returns compared with alternative crops among the pressures facing the sector.
The Gambia produced approximately 532 tonnes of unginned seed cotton in 2024, according to FAOSTAT data reproduced by Terra Cultiva. That compares with a reported high of around 3,100 tonnes in 1993.
Dibba said cotton production had remained dormant for years because of limited production and processing skills and a lack of facilities to turn the crop into profitable finished products.
“Due to these factors and others cotton farmers decided to reduce production. Even cotton research also went down over the years,” he said.
“Cotton and groundnut used to be our main cash crops in The Gambia,” he noted.
He believes reviving the sector could reduce reliance on imported cotton and textile products while creating jobs and opportunities to earn foreign currency. Asked about the ginnery in Basse, in the Upper River Region, Dibba said he had limited knowledge of its current condition.
For the women in Njau, rebuilding production brings its own challenges. Isatou Ceesay said the group lacks modern farming equipment and needs more help with physically demanding work.
“We are only women. We cannot do certain physically demanding farm work. Besides, we lacked the needed machinery to plough our farm as expected,” she said.
Marketing is another obstacle. Ceesay said there are no well-structured local marketing systems for cotton and cotton products, while many people still believe the country’s cotton industry is dead.
Access to quality seeds and varieties suited to The Gambia is another challenge, Dibba said. NARI is focusing on research to identify suitable varieties and growing areas, taking climate change and other factors into account.
“We are researching the best seeds and varieties as well as the suitable regions of the country where cotton can do well. This is to help the private sector access best cotton and textile products,” he said.
Dibba said NARI could help farmers test varieties to identify those best suited to local conditions. He also called for greater public awareness of cotton’s cultural and economic value.
“Sensitizing farmers and communities of the importance of cotton should be a priority so that across the country they can relate to the crop’s cultural and economic values,” he said.
Regional cooperation is still at an early stage, Dibba said, but he hopes to build partnerships with cotton-producing countries such as Burkina Faso to support knowledge transfer and connections for Gambian farmers and businesses.
“We need to network with people who are doing extremely well in this area and regional collaborations is inevitable,” he said.
The initiative plans to establish women-led cotton farms in several districts in Central River Region North, with the longer-term ambition of expanding across The Gambia.
“We have already harvested and stored our best seeds for distribution into the various districts for this level of the cotton revival project,” Ceesay said.
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