Gambia: FAO Organizes Forum to Combat Deadly Onion Disease

At the forum, Ousman Touray, speaking on behalf of the FAO Representative, reminded participants that the onion disease is highly contagious and spreads quickly, with incidences observed at both the field and storage levels. "There is currently no formal study on onion bulb rot in The Gambia to determine the pathogen and other contributing factors responsible for the disease's widespread distribution and management techniques."

Touray, on the other hand, encouraged participants from the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), Plant Protection Services, and farmers to consider the pathogens-like contiguous disease's causal agents in order to better manage it. Annual productivity of onions in the country is still very low as it is estimated at 6,000 metric tonnes, thus the country imports approximately 14,000 metric tonnes each year.

"The low annual productivity can be attributed to a lack of quality seeds and pests, disease prevalence, and storage losses ranging from 20% to 50%, depending on location, environment, and prevalent disease causal agents. The disease onion bulb rot affects onion production in established Community Vegetable Gardens, resulting in significant yield and storage losses." Dr. Demba B. Jallow, Director of the National Research Institute, and Foday Jadama, Director of Agricultural Services, all spoke about the need to end what they called a nightmare in order to meet national onion demand.

"The Gambia requires approximately 25 000 metric tonnes of onion bulbs per year. Unfortunately, with adequate support, the country could produce approximately 14,544 thousand metric tonnes of onion annually. The gap is filled by imports, which put additional strain on the country's meagre financial resources, limiting the country's ability to invest in other sectors of the economy." Dr. Jallow elaborated.

Fatoumatta Jobe, a farmer from the Kololi Women's Garden, described the forum as timely, and expressed hope that the TCP's outcome would address the nightmares she and many other gardeners in the country face. Onions are one of The Gambia's most commercially grown commodities, helping to commercialize the rural economy and creating many off-farm jobs.

They are high in nutrients and contain important vitamins (A, B, and B2), minerals (Ca, P, Fe, Cu, and Zn), soluble sugars, and nicotinic acid. However, farmers in the Gambia have reported the presence of pathogen-like diseases that have been found to be highly contagious and spreading rapidly in the last year. These diseases were discovered in the field and in storage, prompting FAO to fund mitigation measures through a TCP.