From FRROYAA Burning Issues NO: 1/2003 2 - 5 January, 2003

Editorial

Economic Terrorism Against Farmers

The President Should Act

It would sound like an exaggeration to have the caption Economic Terrorism
Against Farmers. The fact of the matter is that it is reflecting the real
state of things. Commissioners have issued warning and law enforcement
officers are reacting to the instruction that farmers should not sell their
nuts to agents across the border who are ready to purchase it at a much
higher price. They consider an act of patriotism to sell nuts to purchasers
at a much lower price .
This is outright treachery.

The international market is one. If the people concerned really care about
the farmers they should find out the prices being offered to farmers in our
subregion and offer Gambian farmers a better price. This would have
encouraged them to sell their nuts to local buyers.

The decision by farmers to sell to persons who offer the highest price has
nothing to do with patriotism or otherwise. Since government parastatals
stopped buying groundnuts  the purchasing of groundnuts just enables the
purchasers to earn foreign exchange.

On the other hand, farmers who sell their groundnuts to Senegal earn foreign
exchange for themselves or a greater income.

The people who are importing goods are selling at any price because of what
is termed as a free market without price controls. The farmers are also
free to sell their nuts at the highest price they can get.

The President should investigate this problem and issue a press release to
dissociate the government from the actions of its agents. There is serious
crop failure. Hardship is increasing in the villages. It is adding insult
to injury to prevent the farmers from deriving the maximum from their
crops. If government cannot control the prices of imported sugar, rice etc.
from increasing, it should not try to control the price at which groundnut
is sold by the threat of its agents. The farmers should ignore all such
threat and sell their nuts to whoever can give then a better price. If the
Department of State for Agriculture fails to react then it must be seen to
be in complicity with the exercise.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: FOROYAA (Freedom) NO: 1/2003  2 - 5 January, 2003 ISSN: 0796- 08573
Address: FOROYAA, P.O.Box 2306, Serrekunda, The Gambia, West Africa
Telephone: (220) 393177  Fax: (220) 393177
Email address: [log in to unmask]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

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]

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