The Bitter Harvest of Gambian Rice Policies

One of the tragic consequences of irrigated rice development projects in The Gambia is how little they improved the lives of the very people they presumed to help. Promoted by international development assistance, Gambian irrigation projects sowed seeds of discord, leaving a peasantry disillusioned with its hollow promises, rural men and women in conflict, and wetlands environmentally degraded. A country that has cultivated rice for millennia now imports three-quarters of its annual needs. This paper focuses on the country's ‘rice bowl,’ the fertile wetlands of central Gambia, where projects have repeatedly failed. The intent is to examine the effects of international governance policies on Gambian agriculture, domestic production, and import dependency.