Gov't Warned Off Cross-Border Trade

The Independent (Banjul)
NEWS
January 12, 2004
Posted to the web January 12, 2004

By S.b. Camara
Banjul

The government has been warned off the idea of continuing with the cross
border trade, if The Gambia is to be insulated from its inimical aftermath,
which affects the economy and the legion of hardworking farmers.

Honourable Sedia Jatta, the Wuli West National Assembly member admonished
the government to instead invest in the purchase of the country's only cash
crop in order to avoid the "unpleasant realities" of cross border trade
that marred the previous two seasons. Honourable Jatta's concern comes as
twenty identified seccos are currently without buying certificates that
would have enabled them to buy farmers' produce.

Contributing to the adjournment debate recently, Honourable Jatta warned
that government policy in the 2001/2 trade seasons had invited some
negative aftermaths on the country's economy. "This time around, the
government has an opportunity to avoid this unpleasant situation. It should
take advantage of the trade season in order to avoid past experiences and
solve the problem of foreign exchange scarcities. For the past months there
has been chaos in this country over foreign exchange. Now is the time for
this government to work hard to earn that foreign exchange. Now is the time
to work hard to earn that foreign exchange through the only cash crop we
have in this country" he admonished.

According to Honourable Jatta, he had earlier on told the then SOS for
Finance Famara Jatta that D90 million or more is being kept in the Central
Bank from the Assets Management and Recovery Corporation (AMRC). "What is
wrong with diverting part of that money into purchasing the farmers'
produce for export and bring foreign exchange to the country? We know that
the groundnut trade is profitable, so what is preventing us from investing
in buying groundnuts" he pondered aloud. He said he saw much sense in the
government taking it upon itself to buy groundnuts and in the process
generate money for the state to become several million dalasi richer.

He said the "responsible factor" for this started many years ago when The
Gambia began to be indebted to the world, "and they ask us not to purchase
our nuts, not to do this, not to do that - everything is meant to make us
take hold of paying back our loans. But I think we can even be more capable
and more apt in paying our loans if we are capable of generating money
which is not loan".

"If we take loans, we must work in such a way that we dip our hand in our
own pocket to pay those loans, but not waiting for another loan to help us
pay loans. It will easily be a cycle of loans to pay loans and the exercise
is as futile as tilting at windmills" he argued.

Honourable Jatta recalled himself as asserting in an earlier contribution
that any loan that does not help our country to do away with loans must not
be taken. "Any loan that will make us more dependent is a loan that we must
not go in for! I think this is the fundamental principle, which has not
been recognised and accepted by successive governments since 1965. But we
have no choice but to do that if we really want to go anywhere," he argued.

Another step he believes the government should take to increase
agricultural productivity is "to reduce the number of travels you
(government officials) are making out of this country. The money that goes
into that should be used to subsidise the farmers to reduce the prices of
fertilizer". Honourable Jatta said he was begging to differ with his
colleagues' assertion for the need to educate farmers on cultivation
techniques as an answer to the crisis in agriculture.

"By my reckoning Gambian farmers are sufficiently aware, sufficiently
educated. It is now a question of providing, that, which is fundamental to
increase their productivity potentials. One of the most important
provisions is fertilizer - an ingredient the cultivable soil badly needs.
Farmlands have been in use for ages, rendering the soil fertility to be
weakened for increased productivity" he outlined.

Mr. Jatta said the cost of a bag of fertilizer as at last year was at D350,
while the ones provided by the government was sold at D320. How many
farmers can afford such a price to produce an acre of any crop, which he
quoted a colleague NAM (who was an agricultural extension worker) as saying
that it requires four bags of fertilizer to do that, "Its just
unaffordable" he emphasised.

Meanwhile, the member of Kombo south also spoke about the state of Gambian
agriculture whose trade season failures he attributed to farmers' lack of
technical know-how to utilise modern cultivation techniques. He also urged
the government to put organic fertilizer at the advantage of chemical
fertilizer, which he agreed, is too expensive to afford from the point of
view of farmers. This, he said is abundantly available throughout the
country, but unfortunately receives little attention from agricultural
experts.

He also advocated for the intervention of what he called agricultural
finance institutions, which will enable farmers to have access to loan
packages from relevant institutions like the Agricultural Development
Bank. "Otherwise, commercial bank loans are just inaccessible to them," he
said.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2003 The Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by
AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[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

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