In the Gambia, UPA productions require low inputs and are largely a subsistence activity with hardly any projections beyond the local markets. With the exception of the Radville Farms located in Tubakuta and Nemakunku in the precinct of the Banjul International Airport, there is no other proprietorship of capital-intensive commercial horticulture farm in the Gambia. The farm is situated on a 300 ha property, fully mechanised with drip irrigation system for year-round production and export-ready packaging facilities on-farm and at the airport.
The UPA industry is largely a female concern with considerable family and non-paid labour support. Vegetables and fruit crops have emerged as important crops due to growing tourists’ presence in greater Banjul area and the increasing urban population, with vegetable production as the major source of income for women in peri-urban Gambia. The women farmers operate a non-capital intensive venture with considerable assistance from government, foreign donors, NGOs, International Agricultural Research Centres, etc. The communal farm holdings are in the vicinity of homesteads/urban centres, and total cultivable lands are minimal and fragmented into individual plots of not more than 100 m2.
Crops are generally rain-fed in the wet season but manually irrigated in the dry season (in places where year-round cultivation is practiced) and during dry spells. Access to land is not a constraint as individuals of communal farmers can only cultivate a limited land area with hand implements. About 20% of the produce is consumed at the household level. The local market is fed mainly by communal gardens managed by women farmers.
There is an overt gender distinction in the ownership and management of livestock. Men generally own and manage cattle while women own and manage poultry and small ruminants. Sheep and goats dung are therefore the primary sources of organic manure in women’s gardens. Where cattle are the primary source of organic manure, men’s fields have priority in tethering. Women farmers own few heads (5-10) small ruminants and poultry. The animals are managed in an extensive free-range system during the dry season but ruminants are tethered during the rains. | 
