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Reviewing Agricultural Trade Policies

To Promote Intra-OIC Agricultural Trade

109

4.3. The Gambia

The Gambia, officially known as the Republic of the Gambia, is located in Western Africa and

surrounded by Senegal, with only 60 kilometers of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. The country

is essentially a 480 km long narrow strip of land. The Gambia is one of the smallest West African

countries with a predominantly drought Shelia shrub-land ecology. Around 56%of the country’s

total land is suitable for agricultural production. The land is mostly used for cereal and

groundnut production as well as for grazing and fallow. Endowed with considerable water

resources, the Gambia is considered as one of world’s richest fishing zones. The Gambian river

is 480 km in length, and bisects the country into two sections (The Republic of the Gambia,

2017).

The country’s GDP is 1.01 billion USD at the 2017 official exchange rate and per capita gross

national income of 450 USD in 2017 (Word Bank, 2018a). The Gambia ranks 176

th

in GDP and

62th in real growth rate among a total of 230 countries. The country is considered to be one of

the poorest in the world. The Gambia ranks as 174 out of 189 countries across the globe with

regards to human development index (HDI) (UNDP, 2018). 39% of the population live in

extreme poverty and mostly depend on agriculture. There is rising inequality, particularly in the

rural areas as well as increased poverty among female households.

Table 4. 26 Share of Agriculture in GDP, Employment and Trade, Gambia

Year

% share in GDP

% share in

employment

% share in

exports

% share in

imports

2008

25.2

32.6

51.0

28.1

2009

26.2

32.6

69.2

34.2

2010

29.0

32.8

68.5

36.1

2011

18.9

31.3

62.9

37.2

2012

20.3

30.5

57.1

37.0

2013

18.9

29.8

55.0

37.6

2014

17.4

28.7

55.4

37.1

2015

17.3

28.4

92.0

35.2

2016

17.0

27.2

83.1

32.7

Source: CEPII BACI, Eurostat RAMON, World Bank, UN Comtrade, UN Trade Statistics, and authors’

calculations

Malnutrition and food deficit as well as low production and low productivity in agricultural

sector has been significant problems throughout the years. Absence of distribution of adequate

water and use of traditionally low technologies in agricultural production augments low

productivity, leading to a vicious circle of poverty and malnutrition. 71% of the population and

57.2% of the urban population lives under 1.25 USD/person/day. Poor infrastructure, lack of

access to finance, marketing constraints, missing markets throughout the agricultural value

chain are limiting factors for sound agribusiness development (African Development Bank,

2017).

In the Gambia, the rate of economic growth was 6.5% in 2010 and 3.5% in 2017 and inflation

rate was 7.0% in 2010 and 10.8 in 2017. The country’s economy relies on services, particularly

tourism. The sectoral distribution of GDP in 2017 is 20.4%, 14.2% and 65.4% for agriculture,

industry and services, respectively (CIA, 2018).

Table 4.26 shows the relative importance of agriculture in the Gambia for the period between

2008 and 2016. The figures show that the share of agriculture in GDP and employment has

declined during the 2008-2016 period while the share of agriculture in exports increased by