on on a weekly basis you can pick $50 $100,000 from this okra only for this okra or only for this okra I was in England for over 12 years and every year I come back but the most importantly and I'm a University graduate I studied in the UK I went to University of West of England I did my ba honors in Business Administration but I had leave all that to come back here and then you know get into a serious economic activities and guess what with all that degree and all those things in England I was doing security and Supermarket jobs to people when I come back first in 2007 I got a job with aess bank I was a brand manager in aess bank and when I left for um um aess bank I work for J oil I left J oil I start my own business but then I've been doing my gardening since then 2016 political impa my one Garden is in the other end I have 500 papayas trees there okay every week I go home with $12,000 with all that political impa with all the problem that people are facing with this I can guarantee you you will be respected you will be comfortable you can see my car I drive four-wheel drive it's come from this Garden from this G you know so whatever you guys wanted to do the best I can advise is let's come to agriculture people will come to my petrol station looking for job as a pump attendance or driver or whatever but if you said to people that I got a job in the garden you can even read from their face that they don't want to be a farmer I I just don't understand and they could they they can make more money more money here than the farm the P station you know what I mean a minister is comfortable in his office because he had a breakfast the president is comfortable in the state house he got a lunch you know so wherever you go the food is the call everything comes everything come from the Agri so why are we not ready to take Agri as our passion and as our feature and everything God knows what is best for you and me that's why we come to this part of the world yeah in England you don't have orange trees there but go to any Supermarket any time of the year they have orange they don't have farmlands for so many things but go to their supermarket they have produce Of Agricultural Product 24/7 worldwide come on what is wrong with us we have the land we have the sun we have the underground water the water level here is less than 10 m my B holes I drill them 45 M you guaranteed you have 30 m in the aqua far pumping it 24/7 by solar that will give you more than enough to grow whatever you want to grow we have this okra we are doing intensively um orange seedlings we have orange trees um we have um watermelon in the other end we have um um be tomato and this Noy over there is the Guana that is going to go to the other bay and as I said we secured this other land recently we're going to expand to poultry very soon okay then we also going to expand the other part of the land for agriculture like Guana in particular my name is um Lin Jan okay born and brought up in gunjur combo south west coast region The Gambia okay and we went to GJ secondary technical school so we move on to St High School where I did my GCO or level then MDI management development Institute we do um business studies okay so but for this particular business after Secondary School in 92 you know 94 eventually B and problem so I was living in sukuta scouting for a job the first job was unqualified teacher M you know I was teaching at sukut um middle school then yeah community in gur we have a project called GJ Malo rink which now turn to tarot that's trust Agency for Rural Development okay then um from unqualified teachers of $381 per month then I was lucky to get a job for $800 is a month my elder daughter was around 2 years at that time uh with $800 I feel in the future before she got to high school or college or whatever um $800 will not pay the salary so I said let me do gardening thank you for watching our videos as you can see since the beginning of this video there is no drone shs for this particular farm that we are visiting today because we don't have a drone so we asking for your help for us to buy some equipments for this particular channel so we created a go for me account and the link is in the description of this video and also p in the comment section so that you'll be able to donate to us so that we'll be able to buy some equipments like a drone and some other equipment that we need to provide you with more interesting videos on this platform any amount that you donate will be very helpful for us the link is in description of this video I planted 125 mango trees then here in 1996 96 so which means you started this placeing in 1996 so then we were doing mango mango grafting here and there so same year in 1996 I was privileged to travel to England M and then since then I've been traveling front and back up to 2009 I stopped traveling okay so from 2009 I intensified this Garden then I start my own business I have a oil business that I'm doing but then I've been continue doing this Garden as well this is my passion this is what I love to do actually okay so since then we because the market for mango goes down you hardly when mango get ripped everything comes on at the same time same time so the market is very small so we decided to say you know what let's discontinue orange sorry mangoes and then we call into the orange then we start with this but so far from the beginning to date we have over 3,000 orange trees across all our Gardens is this is one of them yeah this is the biggest one and the second one at the back is the biggest one okay so then um we also think of doing vegetable gardening because we've been seeing a lot of vegetable activities and then Gambia here women mainly do vegetabl vegetable so we feel like look there's a lot of money because I realized that last year when I finished the order fenc in there I divided to the women one woman will go with 20 30 40,000 with a very small size so we think when we do a bigger size than this we can do far better than them so we then now change to do a simple technology with a drip irrigation system to do this orra Farm as you can see this is all okra yeah you know this all okra and obviously they are doing good the other side there we are doing watermelon and the other side there we are doing a be tomato and then right now we have a nursery which is coming up for Guana hot pepper that's Guana we're going to do it in the other bay so obviously this is briefly how we are into agriculture of this level okay one of the Mo Passion is as I said is to enhance um our economic Revenue but at the same time to also Inspire young people to realize that there's a potential in The Gambia to make a living here rather than thinking of traveling to outside world particularly this backw syndrome okay there's an opportunity here that we can do smart farming you know smart agriculture that can earn you decent money more than a permanent secretary salary I can assure you that because this Bay on on a weekly basis you can pick $50 $100,000 is from this okra only for this okra or only for this okra there is no permanent secretary who is earning 100,000 a month um in a week so there's an opportunity here the most important thing is the Agri Department should be aware of our existence we need support we need help we need to sell our Concepts and our idea to people that yes is possible here because the most important resources in this country is the sun sign this fertile line the atmosphere on theground water if you can marry those few four things together you get a wealth and this is you can manifest it you can see it for yourself yeah 2016 political impass my one Garden is in the other end I have 500 papayas trees there okay every week I go home with 12,000 with all that political impass with all the problem that people are facing I harvested myself take it to the Sanda in Saka I have my 12,000 in my pocket every week every week so 12 by 4 48,000 48,000 so all the political impa the problem people are having I have enough money in my house I have enough food in my house I don't even thinking enough running because I know I have sources so obviously and again we have a a different method of irrigation there compared to this this one I have in all the oring there I have a line that irrigate them but then in between each orange trees like this we have a line for a papaya which also is been irrigated it's a matter of open it open the to and then does it so we can definitely improve on such kind of things to encourage young gambian boys and girls to realize that there is an potential in this country there is an opportunity in this country I was in England for over 12 years and every year I come back but the most important and I'm a University graduate okay you studied here I studied in the UK I went to University of West of England I did my ba honors in Business Administration but then I was having a good job in England my my babar's younger brother is born in England and still isn't there he want to do Aerospace and Engineering but I had leave all that to come back here and then you know get into a serious economic activities which I believe that it can Inspire young people and guess what with all that degree and all those things in England I was doing security and a supermarket jobs but here I'm a boss of my own I'm doing things on my own I'm happy I'm here I can close anytime I want to close I can go home anytime I want to go home and then right now my other side of the business which is oil and gas I have over 58 employees in the site and on that business in that business here we got a young people more than eight people that are benefiting here not talking of indirect employment for women that we share our guing to them that they are doing whatever they want to do whatever money they have it's for them all what I care is care my trees full stop period but whatever income you have we don't have a problem in that so these are the things that we want young gambians to understand that young gambians to realize that the way forward is agriculture The Way Forward is to forget about whatever government is going to advertise on the paper let's come to back to the land with this I can guarantee you you will be respected you be comfortable you can see my car I drive four-wheel drive it's come from this Gard come from this gu you know so whatever you guys wanted to do the best I can advise is let's come to Agriculture and if Government can establish a system whereby they can reach out to rust I don't mind become a mentor I don't mind my garden becomes a platform where young people can come and learn I don't mind student from Gambia college or wherever they can come in and then come and learn what we are doing and if Government want to bring in projects that can also enhance us to go to the next level we are welcome we welcome to see whever we can collaborate to make sure that we have a better te for our future Generations after studying in the UK for that for all all of those years uh you decided to come back home to do agriculture what what what what really inspired that Journey for you look um to be honest with you I'm going to speak truth nothing but the truth the fact that in Europe we have every opportunity there to live on M we are not being bullied or whatever but then home is home there is no place like home M and I have this belief that the way Europe developed is the Europeans who comes together with seriousness and dignity to develop their country particularly I was living in the countryside I was living in Bristol but I work in a place called devices outout of devices which is a farming community and I can see the real farming people what they are able to do in England and I question myself the people that we see as a tourist in this country don't have time to rest in their home the only time they have to rest is the time when they come on holiday so we are misinformed by seeing white people lying down in the beach we think they don't work they work agriculture is the backbone of any European nation you like it or not we who live in the city we are even less privileged to see those realities if you live outside the cities that you see the reality of Europe so I question myself our for people who are privileged to travel are they able to see exactly what I see or if yes are they able to translate that to the reality for our young people on the ground the ground so I felt that I earn £250 after tax and National Insurance in England as a security officer I pay £600 on my house rent I pay my TV Lancing I pay my car insurance you know I I pay Cel tax and all those things taking all that from my income what I left it if you calculate that to the average Sly earners in The Gambia they are better off than me paying all the tax after pay all the tax and National Insurance and everything when you look at that they are better off than me whil I was in England so I said to myself you know what let's go back and show the reality to people when I come back first in 2007 I got a job with axis bank I was a branch manager in axis Bank bar Branch was I was the first aess bank bran manager in bar and when I left for um um aess bank I work for jar oil I left J oil I start my own business but then I've been doing my gardening since then you can see these trees these are not small trees for ages so but then over time I realized that the money I definitely earn and the cleanliness of that in this very environment is far better than what I'm doing in any other thing so that's why I Incorporated this part of the business unit as my main business unit and I do it as a passion and I love it and I want to even retired because my exit plan is now my this daughter now she's in American University almost one year left for her to finish it as soon as she finish I'm going to promote her to manager in the oil and gas sector I'm going to retire to this garden and I want to make sure that I do it the best way possible to show to the people that if you have any plan to exit to retire the best way is agric you can plan to exit your retirement perfectly because we have to retire to allow young people to come back to our jobs jobs yeah because at the end of the day if you stick to the job you get retired you take contract young people are finishing their schools and high schools with fresh ideas and at the end of the day you are stuck there as an old man you can even think more you are still you know taking them out there taking their jobs we definitely need to exit at one point in time and said enough is enough let's allow the young people to take over and then we see that back being whatever position you are being the president being a minister being a director being whoever you have to plan exit once you plan exit and then you have something better to even give you better Revenue better Comfort better peace of mind you know it's it's it's it's good than anything so that's why I am working very hard to put everything in place come next year once my uh uh my daughter got finish her University I'm going to be with her train her show her everything that she need to know except if her husband need they need a different life then probably I may wait for Babu to come up and then he take the lead in that sector but I definitely want to retire in thiss sector in in in the Agri sector okay okay yes talk to us about uh some of the things that some of the challenges that you face regarding this Garden especially you said you don't have only one Garden you have three Gardens separated what are some of the challenges that you think the the main challenges we have is human resources okay we don't have a human resources sometimes if we need a wedding I have to pay people outside I used to have um two yeah two of my brothers who are with us making three okay but unfortunately um at that time what I did was I allow them to look after my trees but whatever vegetable they are doing I allow them to keep it for themselves to help Unfortunately they all make good money but they Venture on the back way luckily they are there but they definitely call me back and they said they really really really regret to be there because all what I've been telling them um they didn't see it until they there it's unfortunate but nonetheless I pray for them to be successful there but my biggest challenge here is human resources okay to get young people to because for me I don't understand if you people will come to my petrol station looking for job as a pump attendance or driver or whatever but if you said to people that I got a job in the garden you can even read from their face that they don't want to be a farmer I I just don't understand and they could they they can make more money in than the farm the P station because petrol business we can pay you3 $4,000 being pump attendance whatever here if we are here we do what we call S base we put the cars on the table at the end of this this season for example if all this okra is dry off we calculate what we do we take out zakat and then I give you substantial amount far more than that you can even think of it if you want to go ahead and then do your own business in future I don't have a problem in that but I don't understand why young people don't want to take Agri as a business I I question that and imagine my brother tell me being a technology being media being Patrol being whatever industry tell me can you do this job without being having a food in your stomach and tell me where those food come from come from it comes from the garden mean from agriculture you know what I mean a minister is comfortable in his office because he had a breakfast a president is comfortable in the state house he got a lunch okay a pilot is comfortable in the air because his stomach is fill even you enjoy oh this hotel is nice it's not only the building or the Ambiance it's the food the food yeah you know so wherever you go the food is the core and the basic need of human being is food cloth and shelter and tell me the food is come from the shelter come from the Agri and then even the clothing come from the everything everything come from the Agri so why are we not ready to take Agri as our passion and as our feature and everything so our biggest challenge here is obviously Human Resources that's the biggest the other problem we have is we want to have added value if I do this I want to make sure somebody comes in and take it to the market or somebody take it to the processing Factory you know somebody take it you know to even to the international market this is an organic farm okay that you have state ofthe Earth agric okra fresh you know this is less than a month old this okra is less than a month old since we we saw it and up to now and you can see the beautiful foods and you already start harvesting we start harvesting just now so obviously somebody need to come in and say you know what I want to take it to the hotel I want to take it to the England I want to take it to the America or I want to take it to banun or whatever so that at least every layer we inate we create employment opportunity you come in as an intermediary we don't want we are happy here we are comfortable the birds are singing you know the birds are drinking water they happy we are here but then we want you also to take it up to take that marketing strategy from our head then you know you go to the market all what we need is pay what is Du to us you go to the market they pay what is Du to us somebody take it to the next level and does it so added value is another thing and also we want to make sure that government we collaborate with the government we want government to see what we are doing we want government to understand that yeah we don't ask them to give us billions or whatever but at least let them come in we sell our concept and our ideas to them so that they can see where we can collaborate and take cont to the next level together we can make a difference I have that belief together we can make a difference okay what is that one thing that you think is missing in agriculture sector that you think when fixed can change everything when it comes to the entire AG sector of Agriculture is the networking the Farmers on the ground need to network with the government agencies in a serious note in a very very serious not not a lip sign okay I remember one retired permanent secretary when he was in active Services bring a a senior agricultural specialist from Washington to this Garden okay and when the gentleman came in here you know the on that day you know all the agricultural unit in CarePoint they come there with their four wheels and everything and when the gentleman see what I'm doing he said look these are the people that you guys need to support but since that guy left up until today and unfortunately the permanent secretary who facilitated that is's retired now he's no longer in service but then since then I never see an agric officer been here and we are not even noted that we are even existing so in as much as we want to move on we cannot move on our own government should showcase our activities you know organizations should need to showcase our activities to see what we are doing what where we are lacking we can s them we are lacking on this we want to get this we want to do this we want to go to that level and then together we can get to a level whereby you know know we can get food um self food sufficiency in this country we need food we need our stomach to be filled with healthy one for that matter but at the same time we need Revenue every gambians need a DEC Revenue if I can do agric I should be able to buy other services other products other things so that at least together we all move but if we are struggling here everything that you seen it here I'm doing on my own it's my self project I never get a grand or a facility or whatsoever from anybody or any organization to do what I'm doing but alhamdulillah I'm happy what I'm doing I'm doing I'm happy what I'm doing then I don't owe anybody any obligation to say you know what at the end of the day you know mean um let me take this into this let me take into that one but obviously we need government as a serious stakeholder we need NOS we need UN agency to see what we are doing and what is possible Gambia we don't have an excuse to be poor we don't have an excuse to be as long as we have this land we have this underground water we have this atmosphere we have this Sunshine look you are seeing water pumping out everywhere it's all solar there's no generator since you came in here you are not seeing any generator been pumping so this sun sign is a massive energy that we can tap it to pump water up with the Graal pools these crops can get what they need so this is it it's serious uh what are some of the things that you have here as I said we have this okra we are doing intensively um orange seedlings we have orange trees um we have U watermelon in the other end we have um um um be tomato and this Nery over there is the Guana that is going to go to the other bay and as I said we secured this other land recently we're going to expand to poultry very soon okay then we also going to expand the other part of the land for agriculture like Guana in particular because Guana a friend of mine is in jambang and I wish um abl bojang I wish you go and see his um Garden you'll be more impressed than mine to be honest with you we are together in England he also give up everything that he's doing in England and he's back in Gambia and he's doing Agri fulltime like I am doing so if you go there you will see that um he's doing a lot in terms of productivity in terms of layout in terms of vision there's a lot that you could learn from that to as well so yeah obviously these are the things that I hope we are doing it here we have Caso We have mango so come every season we have Revenue all these casso in the peripheral have two functions during the Caso time we have revenue on it but they also serve as a windbreaker to help our flowers to pollinate comfortably without not being wasted or all those things so yeah we are doing multiple um cropping there's always revenue revenue come every time we have something to put in our pocket you can pick what is it bitter tomato Tom yeah this is exactly one week old for this one since last Sunday we transplant them transplant so today Sunday is exactly 1 week and alhamdulillah by looking at it they are all looking healthy you know so the beauty about the drip is the holes we created the water is going right to the crop exactly right to the crop but as it goes the moisture content meat you know so that also allow the geotropism of the roots to you know go bigger and bigger and then you know what I mean so as they grow they also create natural seeds underneath the ground so that natural seed also prevent High evaporation so again here we do multiple farming we do threee crops we do vegetable so the seeds because the Sun come from different angles of the you know trees they have the crops have a sunsh sign but at the same time they also have son so the moisture content for evaporation is also minimized here so I'm not an agricultural specialist though but my secondary school Agri knowledge I'm a little bit utilizing that I'm a more commercial oriented person I'm a commercial minded person so I can turn anything to commercial Ventures that's that's how we are as a commercial people you know I study business administration so come in anywhere I can use that business skills to look into the revenue component of it here and there yeah so that's how we are how if this goes well mhm how much money do you think that's what I'm saying here in six month time you can hit a million plus Millions you can what is it bitter tomato Tom J yeah yeah so imagine man you know you this this space alone is less than 50 by 50 exactly around 50 by 50 yeah around that so around this 50 by 50 if you pick up a million divided by 12 compared to any senior officer salary I think the gambian civil servants should think of their retirement exit before giving you a car as a retirement why not def fence you a land and put you this system and then you go home and return and give chance to the young people in in the business rather than sticking there on a contract and before you sell 50x 50 at 100,000 why not keep it and do this thing there keep do something something like this and the land will be there for of the L what's your advice to the to the to the young people my advice to young people is let us have confidence in ourself and let us believe that being it here being to the back way be it in UK be it into the Germany is not going to solve our problem our problem is have confidence in yourself that nobody is going to leave Germany nobody is going to leave Italy Spain UK us talk develop Africa for us particularly Gambia Gambia is we G gambians that is going to make a change for ourselves you know God is not mistaken to bring you and me into this part of the World We can question that as a Muslim We can question that as a religious person being a Christian or Muslims you can question that God knows what is best for you and me that's why we come to this part of the world yeah in England you don't have ories there but go to any Supermarket any time of the year they have orange they don't have farm lands for so many things but go to their supermarket they have produce Of Agricultural Product 24/7 worldwide come on what is wrong with us we have the land we have the sun we have the underground water the water level here is less than 10 m my bols I drill them 45 M you guaranteed you have 30 m in the aqua far pumping it 24/7 by solar that will give you more than enough to grow whatever you want to grow grow yeah look if you go for 4:00 in bama Sanda you go to 4:00 in Saka Sanda you'll see agricultural produce and guess what most of them now are malan boys who leave Maly and come to Gambia and make millions in our gambian Market what is wrong with us I'm a graduate I was in the bank neck tire air condition seat I have 10 staff Boolean van to collect cares my own official car I leave it there I'm happy here this is mine that one I'm giving profit to the shareholders this one I'm giving profit to my own future and my children so you can compare I don't I have my suits and ties but I'm happy here this is nice anytime you can Harvest Orange beautiful ones you know and then uh you get it if it is kaso time yes if it is mango time yes so it's more beautiful than here then sitting making shareholders richer and richer and getting myself poor and poorer oh yeah but with this piece of mind alhamdulillah so I encourage everybody being a private sector being Commercial Bank being um you know investment institutions let's support agric and the most important thing we need agric financing because startup is challenging it's really really challenging government should come up with a radical solution to say you know what we need a financial um institution or financial bank for agric that can lend young farmers for 3 years 4 years five 5 years down the line with a minimal interest if you take commercial loans 25% 20% 18% it's a killer yeah that's that's too much that's a killer that's too much yeah but then if you don't get the capital where can you go in so we need both parties involved to help the young people yes even the young people come forward they need counseling they need coach they need mentoring they need support they need someone to even demonstrate this how I started this how I do it this how we are are that's how we going to go so those are the things that definitely I think I will conclude it in that that we need all stakeholders on board to make this Agri business a reality thank you very much it's my pleasure
