Flashing a big and optimistic smile on his otherwise serious face, an old farmer surveyed his millet field in Jimara, in the Central River region of The Gambia and clasped his hands thankfully to the heavens.
For two days on end, his community had witnessed much expected rains to nourish their crops which were already wilting under the oppressive heat of the August sun to cap months of a parched climate.
The fortune of Gambian farmers has gone from gloom to bloom after heavy rains lashed the whole country on Sunday night into Monday evening.
From farmers in the Upper River Region to their counterparts in the Lower and Central River regions, farming activities have suddenly picked up in the wake of two days of merciful downpour.
Much of Gambian agriculture is rain-fed, leaving farmers who are the poorest of the country’s poor scrambling to their farms to tend to their rejuvenating crops barely hours after marking the Muslim feast of Eid on Sunday and Monday.
Gambian farmers grow groundnut, millet, sorghum, coos and rice for both domestic consumption and commercialization.
Before this week, it had rained a few times since the rainy season officially began two months ago, leaving crops wilting on the parched fields of rural Gambia where agriculture is the chief mainstay.
Bewildered by the paucity of rainfall, the lowest for recent rainy seasons, Gambians have been scanning the sky and praying for the heavens to open up and bless their fields with rain water.
In his religious sermon shortly before leading last Friday’s congregational prayers, Imam Salifu Mbye entreated his hushed congregation in Sinchu Alhagie, 14km south of the Gambian capital Banjul to cup hands together and implore the high heavens for much needed rain.
He was responding to a request the previous day by the Supreme Islamic Council calling on religious leaders nationwide to offer prayers during congregational worship for plentiful rain which has been few and far between this rainy season.
Like Imam Mbye, Muslim leaders across The Gambia had obliged, imploring Allah to bless this year’s rainy season.
Mid-August always records the highest amount of rainfall in The Gambia but this year has been different, causing disquiet among the country’s farming community.
The 2019 rainy season has so far witnessed the lowest amount of rainfall in The Gambia in living memory, leaving farmers turning to religious leaders for intercessions with Allah on their behalf.
Since July when the first real rains led to the planting of crops, helpless farmers had wandered around their parched fields tending to wilting crops and keeping weary eyes on the sky.
Islamic clergies like Imams Mbye and Jallow have been clutching their beads in prayerful longing for God’s bountiful mercies in the form of rain.
As they did, there was one single thing on their minds – blessing fields with rejuvenated shoots to harbinger a plentiful harvest in the intervening months.
“Now that the rains have fallen, the backbreaking work now starts” said the anonymous Jimara farmer spreading his hands into a wide arc to demonstrate the magnitude of the task ahead for local farming communities who still use primitive implements.
It is still a long way to go from sowing and tending to weeding and harvesting, but farmers have found cause for newfound optimism that perhaps after all their prospect for good yields gives them a reason to smile.
WN/as/APA