Reading through the 2003 budget, the following statistics caught my
attention.

Mr. Jatta said:
"Cereal production increased from 175,000 metric tons in 2000/2001 to
187,000 metric tons in 2001/2002, an increase in 6.9%. Early millet
production of 89,000 metric tons represent 52% of the overall cereal
production. However, the production of rice (the main staple food of the
country) declined from 34,000 metric tons in 2000/2001 to 19,000 metric tons
in 2001/2002, a decline of about 44%. This is due to reductions in both
upland and swamp rice production."

I am curious to know how much the government spends on millet as a crop
compared to rice and peanuts? This is in the form of foreign exchange,
loans, projects and subsidies (traders and farmers). Also of interest to me
is what proportion of the country's cereal consumption is rice and millet?

While I wait for our agric experts to help answer the above questions, I
would dare say that the government do not seem to get the role of millet in
Gambia's economic wellbeing. I believe rice is over-rated as our staple
food. Infact our efforts to achieve food security through increased
home-grown production my be totally misplaced. First environmental
conditions in the Gambia do not favor rice as much as many of us believe.
Our location in the Sahel makes rain-fed rice production extremely
difficult. The topography and geology (flat terrain, and very old, very poor
sandy soils makes irrigation a very expensive venture.

I hope the government understand that it is not by some fluke that millet
production managed to register 6.9% in a year the government declared
drought disaster and famine warning? The environmental hardiness of millet
and our farmers' knowledge about its cultivation without the extra input
makes it all the more successful. The fact is you can grow millet without
the extra attention (weeding) demanded by groundnuts and the extra moisture
(needed by rice).

The only BUT about millet is processing. Just like they went  for growing
millet because of the environment and economics, farmers chose rice when it
comes to consumption because of the economics of processing.  The
government's job should be to facilitate millet processing and marketing.
The government needs to support those individuals who want to start their
processing and marketing trade. In addition to traditional foods from millet
we must encourage new innovations. The Government must go out of its way to
support individuals with bright ideas on what to make from millet. Loan
guarantees and tax incentives would go a long way to address that. Another
area is to negotiate with Senegal to enable our traders to access the rest
of the sub-region. This is perhaps the most important. As we have seen with
trade with outside world, Gambians can compete successfully when they get
equal access. This cannot be guaranteed if there is no comprehensive policy
with Senegal with regard to movement of people and goods.

Malanding Jaiteh

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