Maruo Farms: Building a Women-Led Rice Value Chain in the Gambia

Founded in 2018 by returning Gambian entrepreneur Musa Darboe, Maruo Farms ('local farm') grew from a 3-hectare trial plot in the Central River Region into a fully integrated rice operation spanning seed production, cultivation, milling and marketing. The company now works with a network of 1,680 smallholder farmers, 90% of them women, supplying machinery, drought-resistant seed and guaranteed markets that let farmers repay services in harvested rice rather than cash. Backed by the EU-funded Jobs, Skills and Finance for Women and Youth programme, the model has cut post-harvest losses and sped up planting-to-market times as the company scales toward 600 hectares of production.