Essa,

My opinion is that,market is not the problem for the Gambian Farmers,this is
,if I am not wrong ,  what Habbi also meant.The last time I talk to one of
my in-laws,there was scarcity of onion in Banjul and then everywhere  for
days and if not for weeks,until the imported onion arrived.Here the problem
is not market but production.What Njayri is saying is that there are too
many farmers in Africa,contrary to what Habbi believed.One, I agree with
Nyari,I am among those who believed that less 2% of the Gambian population
can provide us with the food we need ,raw material for local production and
export.Today more than 50% of our population are farmer,full time or part
time.Our problem is not what the APRC believed it is.This is why their
policy of telling Gambian youths to go and farm or sending the military to
go and farm will not solve the problem.We have already more than enough
farmers.You are right,mechanization of Agriculture will be the backbone in
both food production and the industrialisation of Agriculture.Take a nation
like the Gambia,had we known our development priorities,one,we would have
invested more in agric machines,some of these could even be produced in the
Gambian.Think of the fact that we turned over  jet fighters to Ukraine and
asked them to compensate us with farming mercnies,Or think as simple as
this;Habbib is lamenting the situation of Tomato growers in the Gambia,they
got rotten in the markets and yet we are still importing Tomato paste,he is
very right,this should not have been the case.This problem is simple to
solve,need no sophisticated economic theory or miracle.See,if the President
is prepared to get rid of his private jet and invest it in the production of
Tomato paste machines (You will agree with me that such machines are cheap
and more development friendly than maintaining a Presidential private
Jet)and employ in that Factory military personals he is sending to the farm
land,they will pay their own salary,save the Gambia foreign exchange and
save the Tomato crowers,who will now be having a more secured source of
income.Think of the development reaction this will have.Because we have a
Sankung Sillah who can also produce containers for the production of Tomato
paste.You can do this with peanut-butter,the mangoes  production ect,that
Habbib mentioned.
A couple of years ago,Tombong Saidy informed us that Gambians will soon be
buying rice produced in the Gambia,in our supermarkets  ect,this was
followed by Jungle,that soon Yundum will be turned into a giant industrial
area with more than a dozen numbers of factory.Well today we know th stories
better,just like the story that Salikeni will be electrify within an
year.All of them dreams,and sweet dreams,of course we all want to see a
better Gambia and not another South Korea or Mexico."Capital" is not
interested whether Babou in Jarra has enough food for the following day or
if there are drugs in the next health centre,what "Capital" is more
interested in,is how much it will cost to produce and how much they will
gain out of it.This is why in the most developed industrial nations there
are people sleeping in the streets, because they have no home to call
theirs,this is why there are still people trading with the Junta in Burma or
Saudi Arabia where human rights is no issue.If we have this understanding of
"Capital" and yet expect this "capital" to solve our problems whiles we buy
jetfighters and private Presidential jets,then we are not serious with
national development.What we see,is Habbib having first hand information and
experience that "Capital"is not even nationalist,they can close Factories in
small US communities,destroy happy families and move to China,where labour
is cheap and workers rights are contained by  state fascism calling itself a
communist state.
Take our sea coast,for more than 40 years our sea resources are been
exploited by people and nations who have no interest in our bread and butter
struggle.They come and fish and go their way,in certain countries,this will
not happen,the consequences are today that,local fisher men are using more
resources,facing more dangers and yet they are not able to provide enough
fish in the market.If situation continue as they are we might ,in very near
future be free for fish in our waters.There are nations today,with more than
1/3 of the total Gambian population,employed in the fishing and fishing
related industries.The problem is,they are not only marking the best use of
these resources and or protecting it,they are developing it to make sure
that generations to come will benefit out of it.Ours could have solve our
unemployment problem.We export raw sardines to many places and enjoy eating
imported sardines in box.Producing Sardines in box in the Gambia,should not
be as expensive as running and maintaining two State house.The security
cost,the food,the electricity bill,water bills etc,but perhaps more
important,to provide jobs to Gambians and enable them to get access to
fish,with all the health benefits involved in eating fish,it might relief
our hospitals the burden it is not able to carry.
Our Hospitals,if it was not the Cubans,I don't know how we will manage
them.But the most serious mistakes is taking all those loans building
hospitals that we knew will be difficult to maintain.Had we develop our
primary health care system we might have been able to solve much of our
health problems.A developing nations needs more a well developed and
functioning primary healthcare system than hospitals without drugs.I am of
the believed that until our "planers" get this into their heads,people will
continue to visit the hospital and be told that there is either a shortage
of dressing,drugs or towel.
Some of us might not understand the basics of economics,but our rights in
refusing to accept the logics of "capitals" as anything natural will never
be compromise.

For Freedom
Saiks


>From: ESSA BOKARR SEY <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: AGRICULTURE IN AFRICA,CAPITALISM AND OUR METHODS/HABIB AND CO.
>Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 22:18:50 -0800
>
>Brother Habib its been some time i did not enter the ring on the L
>however,because of the interesting part of this productive debate i think i
>can throw in my two bututs.There are different paradigms and methods of
>approach when it comes to production  development and then finally roll on
>progress.Some societies prefer imitation; that i think is dangerous if one
>does not fully understand the implications and the methods  being copied or
>at best imitated,some prefer innovation;that i think can help please refer
>to the old adage:NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION.There is also a
>common saying:INNOVATE AND DO NOT IMITATE.
>Well when one imitates that means one is encouraging dependence per
>se.Comparisons may help and then get to adopt what suits the situation
>(consumers,producers and the larger market).
>Capitalism and communism have always been at loggerheads but lets try and
>revisit history and or rediscover where those terminologies are from in the
>first place.
>
>Are they originally African? Not at all! Shouldn't Africans adopt some of
>these idealogies..? well thats left to what we find suitable or not
>suitable.
>In simplistic terms in a capitalist set up one should have enough capital
>or be last on the line of that rough rat race.In a communist field one
>should be ready to understand the lietrature and the philosophy behind or
>be a blind follower and a liability to the working force.
>In certain parts of the world theologies are used to rule.Usually what is
>fair does not mean equal shares or what the french call 'donnant-donnant'
>fairness means giving out what should be given out regardless of who the
>recipient is.
>
>Food self suffeciency knows no ideology it only knows hard work and dynamic
>redistributive policies period.A communist needs food! a capitalist needs
>food! a preacher needs food.Food knows no race,theory or region it only
>knows the human being or the animal that has an empty stomach.
>
>So lets take Taiwan's case as an exmple:
>FORMOSA-the island started its development process under Chang Kai Shek and
>others.Back in the ealry days of the island's existence as a province(or a
>country until 1971-when they went out of the UN).These people were working
>in the fields,they produced plantains,bananas and other types of
>fruits,which they exported to other areas and then created a growing
>economy.
>The base of that economy was the SMES or the small,medium emterprices.
>To date those SMES are a force to reckon with.Big companies are the members
>of that   body. Companies like the Imei-a food company that produces milk
>from peanuts is one of them, they have returns equivalent to three hundred
>million dollars a year! These rich tycoons started as poor farmers today
>they make noice all over the world and they are a force to reckon with.
>Now what we lack back home is what physicians call the FORCE OF THRUST.
>ACTION-REACTION.
>If a farmer produces he needs a market-where is the market?
>Mechanised agriculture calls for good machines-where are they?
>So the list goes on and on...
>The legacy of colonialism has caused a lot of side effects in Africa,no
>doubt colonialism is bad as Nkrumah said:"THERE ARE NO PROS AND CONS IN
>COLONIALISM SO NO NEED FOR A DEBATE ON IT" That i strongly
>believe.However,when we start from independence to now are all the probs in
>Africa left overs or...? Many were inherited but as Drammeh said neo
>colonialism is another cancer.Now who are the neo colonialists?! Indeed
>African leaders who were groomed and then inherited the indirect rule or
>the assimilitaion! Then here we have to accept that not every thing back
>home has been caused by the colonialists. We are independent nations etc so
>why not learn from the past and then wal towards the future with dynamic
>policies?
>Politics is so complex that no single leader is the star.The only star in
>democracy is concensus or the voice of the people!
>Therefore our best bet is to encourage a process thats free from all those
>ideologies and theories lets see what suits us best by conducting
>researches and
>then adapt our findings to the culture back home.
>Understanding one's culture is fundamental part of development,sometimes
>many of us Africans think of drums,koras and other musical instruments when
>a cultural show is mentioned-is that accurate well the debate is open.
>I believe that music and other forms of expression are good conductors of
>cultural values and one can revolutionise a whole society through
>music,however the contents to  be wrapped within that music is what i think
>culture as a whole should teach us.
>All the activities taking place within a given community is what formulates
>culture.Culture is made by human beings and then human beings are expected
>to represent that image they built within.Culture is the high way of
>development and it derives its colour or form from the environment.That can
>be noticed if one takes a close look vis a vis farming tools,a farmer that
>operates in the swamps cannot use the tools that are being used in a sandy
>area.
>These different approaches and methods are what we shoud synchronise and
>then yearn for bumper harvests.
>Next time we will talk on how to conserve the products and then search for
>a market.Our farmers must have markets that can buy what they produce.After
>eating and drinking one needs beds,clothes and so on to survive.Now that
>barter trade is rare effective marketing strategies have to be put in
>place.
>Our first target should be the subregion so the need for good
>neighbourliness arises.Politics and business are like the two sides of a
>colanut.
>
>Essa Bokarr Sey.
>A farmer in
>
>
>
>Think before you sink!
>"Pessimists see difficulty in every opportunity and optimists see an
>opportunity in every challenge"
>"Suits cannot be made without scissors and niddles,so decent minds disagree
>to agree"
>
>---------------------------------
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