Bro Joe,

I was asking the same question when I read the article and if you could
remember Jungle posted an article to the GL were the SECY for Agriculture was
reacting to a similar article that appeared in the independent. We could read
in that article;

"The SECY for Agriculture, Mr. Hassan Sallah called the editor over
 the holiday to react to our editorial. SECY said credit buying has been
substantially reduced over the past few weeks. He
 revealed that as at now it stands at D45 m which will be reduced next week
with the pumping of an additional D23 m. For the
 remaining, Sallah said, plans are afoot to clear all the debts by the end of
April 2002."

We are in May and soon June and I hope this journalist will make a second
visit to the SOS.The problem of the farmers is not taking serious by this
government. There is this plain fact that much of the development activities
at home are foreign programme, thus creating lot of external dept without been
able to deal with the concrete conditions of our people. Is it not ridiculous
for the SOS to encourage youths to go back to the land when farmers are yet to
be paid for many months of hard working, the maleria, the hunger, the sweet,
you name it. In his recent interview with the observer we could read;

"He noted that the government had a
Policy of Back-to-the-Land and called
on the youths to take an active role in
Agriculture to fully realise the potentials
of the policy. "Agriculture is the
Backbone of our economy and since
The government's announcement of this
Policy there has been a significant
improvement in agricultural
production," he said."

 More than 50% of the work forces in the country are farmers and yet still we
are not able to provide enough food for our self. We have farmers who are
still not able to sell their products or did not get their monies after a long
and hard working season and yet still we are asking the youths to involve in
arigulture. If there is this problem of marketing the farmer's groundnuts, why
not engage them in the production of rice instead of calling on the youths to
go back to the land. But no, another big promise;

"Mr Sallah assured the National Youth
Service Scheme (NYSS) of his
Department's full cooperation and
support to ensure a higher yield in the
Sapu rice field.His department, he added, was making all efforts to lift the
practice of
agriculture from its subsistence level to a commercial one."

The abundant production of rice and commercialisation is no new news. Long
time back Tombong Saidy came here with the same news and we are still waiting
whiles poor quality imported rice is becoming more and more expensive for
ordinary Gambians.This State is depending highly on loans and grants, this is
the fact, this is why people are asked to go and buy bandage for wounds to de
dressed at our main hospitals, this is why poor Bekai was even lucky that he
got his wounds dressed and this is why hardly a week pass without reading in
the papers that X or Y have donated hospital equipments  whiles jets fighters
show our skies  with tax payers monies.
In a recent newspaper article, one could read that;

"Momodou B.A. Senghore one of the bank's Board of Directors in a
typical 'state of the bank address' told the 24th annual general meeting
of the bank's directors at the Kairaba Beach Hotel last week that the
relative decline in tourism activity, the absence of a vibrant cross
border trading and the groundnut marketing crisis meant that the local
currency performed dismally and led to a rally for the dollar and the
pound."(Observer)

If the government could not take serious the newspaper reports on the
condition of the farmers, then they should at least listen to their
economists. Farmers are more than 50% of our population; their purchasing
power will determine our economic activity and development.
You just can't go on building hospitals when you don't have good primary
health care service. You just don't go on creating more farmers when you have
enough of them living in acute poverty.

For Freedom


















>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~