OSOP products from the communities of Essau, Njawara and Mbullum, all in the North Bank Region in The Gambia are among many others that now enjoy high customer demand in major markets of the Gambia. Different products are being produced by 40 communities in the North Bank and Central River Regions of the Gambia under the FSCA project. The Project adopted the One-Village-One-Product (OVOP) concept and approach to achieve food security through commercialisation. The OVOP has been adapted and localised in The Gambia to mean: ‘One-Satee-One-Product’ (OSOP).

The OSOP approach is used to empower communities to generate income and wealth through resource mobilization to produce value added goods and services that are marketable. The approach supports the specialisation of communities (Satee) on specific products that give them comparative advantage to market.

It therefore identifies the community with specific products, requiring the adoption of quality control measures and innovative value addition practices.

These OSOP products that are in the market have gone through vigorous stages of production, quality control and value addition to meet consumer standards.

Easy and timely access to inputs like seeds and fertilizers and the use of modern technologies in production, post-harvest and simple value addition techniques has resulted to increase market opportunities for the FSCA project beneficiaries.

For the women who are the major actors as small scale producers, solutions to major problems such as poor garden infrastructure, limited capacity in value addition and inadequate market opportunities are a gateway to economic emancipation.

Getting value added products in the Gambian markets is regarded as one of the first steps to the success of the One-Satee-One Product (OSOP). As more features of the programmes are implemented and sustained such as community enterprise management, private sector involvement, market information system and the promotion of enterprise networks among others, the implementation of FSCA will serve as an excellent model that can be emulated in the other parts of the country.