From Rice Fields to Reporting: How One Journalist Is Documenting Gambia's Climate Crisis

As a boy, Kebba Jeffang headed to the rice fields after school to work alongside his parents in their small farming community. As a journalist, he made agriculture part of his beat in Gambia, the West African country where he grew up.

"I have a strong knowledge of growing rice and the threats that can hinder it. I know the problems farmers face," said Jeffang who won praisefrom the Africa Science Journalism Awards for his "investigative depth, scientific accuracy, public relevance, and clear storytelling."

The reporter recalls the moment a few years ago when his career took a turn.

"We are used to being forgotten, even when the land cries with us," a rice farmer told him, pointing to the creeping saltwater that was killing her crops. Her words made a lasting impression.

"It was then that my commitment to cover under-reported environmental and social issues, especially those involving communities with little national or international attention, was heightened," said Jeffang. Amplifying these kinds of stories remains a constant in his reporting.

In an ICFJ-backed investigationon how salt water is destroying Gambia's rice crops, Jeffang noted that climate change "driven by rising sea levels, erratic rainfall and deforestation, is stripping away the country's arable land." Farmers were facing an economic ruin in one of Africa's poorest nations.

Jeffang received an ICFJ Boost Reporting Grantin 2025 to pursue the story. The individual reporting grants are designed to expand ICFJ's offering to its global network for projects that might not fit under existing initiatives. This iteration of the grants was focused on climate reporting.

Jeffang credits the Boost Grant with helping him dig deeper and draw media attention to the causes of the region's dying rice paddies.

"The grant allowed me to cross borders into Senegal and bring regional insight to a deepening climate-driven crisis," said Jeffang. "I hope readers see saltwater intrusion not as a distant environmental threat but as a pressing crisis that is happening in these communities every day."

The reporter offered the following tips on how he carries out his investigations:

• Dig deep into research on the topic and talk to those most affected by the problem. During the backgrounding stage of his investigation, Jeffang met with farmers, environmentalists, and government stakeholders to identify problems and possible solutions. Later, if he needed to do more formal interviewing, he called them back and set a time.

• Involve photojournalists as part of the team early in the process. Jeffang believes photos captivate the audience and help readers "fall in love with a story."

• Cite data to provide context and build credibility. As part of the investigation, he included a study on the decrease in rice cultivation and decline in yields due to salt intrusion. The data supported what his sources were telling him.

• Gain the trust of those you interview. "I let my sources know that I was a rice farmer. That helped them open up to me," said Jeffang, who is working on a Master of Science degree at Seton Hall University in the United States.

Jeffang is the former West Africa editor of Dialogue Earth, a publication promoting education on climate change and reporting on local impact, and served on the board of the Gambia Press Union from 2018 to 2021.

Journalists from Ecuador and Bangladesh also were recipients of ICFJ's Boost Reporting Grants.

• Gabriela Verdezoto Landivar investigatedthe link between low government transparency in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the region's deforestation rates.

• Ismail Hossain exploredhow local governments' lack of dedicated spending on climate impacts is preventing them from addressing climate change in Bangladesh.