Mr. Sanneh wrote: "It is heart breaking to see that all the SOS have for this sector is another way the goverment is ready to deal with this very serious matter is to promise to continue to empower farmers. My question is HOW DO THE GIVERNMENT EMPOWER FARMERS WITHOUT BUYING THEIR PRODUCE? We all know that the agricultural sector is on the decline ever since the APRC came to power, however this does not justify the fact that the little produced, could not be battered for cash which they need so badly.Mr Jatta, What is the market price of the the cash crop,PEANUTS? Stop playing games, your destiny lies in the hands of the GAMBIAN FARMERS". You then went on to qualify what you wrote above by quoting the following from SOS Jatta's budget speech: "Agriculture ,On agricultural development, SoS Jatta remarked that the government would continue to empower farmers through the provision of some micro-finance, essential inputs and farm machinery. He noted that the sector continued to be marred by a series of constrains resulting in low production and productivity. He said in tandem with the revitalization programme for agriculture, substantial public and private investments are being sought to redress the key priority area of the sector. However, he noted that difficulties continued to be experienced in groundnut marketing during the past year, resulting in credit buying for the first part of the trade season." Mr. Sanneh, The conclusion you reached, based on a single extract from a long speech, is not only erroneous, but misleading. If you want to comment on government's success or failure with regards to the agriculture sector based on SOS Jatta's budget speech, please do so by reading the whole speech dealing with it. While it may be convenient to use an extract from SOS Jatta's speech to try to score political point, it is counter-productive in the long run, unless you do so honestly. For the information of all, here are other extracts from the same speech dealing with our agricultural sub-sector. "In general, the major programmes in the Agricultural sector have performed favourably leading to great improvement in the output of the sector. The ADB, IFAD and Gambia Government funded Lowland Agricultural Development Programme (LADEP), continues to contribute significantly to increased rice production and household food security, which is very much in line with its primary objectives. So far, 1,745 hectares of swampland have been reclaimed since April 1997, representing 101% of the cumulative target for the first four years and 52% of the targets for the whole 8-year programme. Overall, 10,100 households have benefited from the project, through access causeways and bridges as well as construction of dykes. The ADB and Gambia Government-funded Peri-Urban Smallholder Improvement Project (PSIP), with total project cost of US$7 Million for five years, was launched this year. The project is expected to boost, on a sustainable basis, the production of horticultural and livestock products by smallholders in the Western and North Bank Divisions. The European Union has already approved the funding of the Pan African Programme for the Control of Epizootic (PACE) to the tune of D7.8 million. The overall objective of PACE is to enhance national capacities to control epizootic diseases, that affect livestock and thereby help in alleviating poverty among those involved in livestock farming. Government is supporting an Integrated Maize and Poultry Project with the aim of enhancing food security and rural incomes. Through the project, we provide inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and agro-chemicals to producer associations for maize production to be used as poultry feed. The producer groups have been assisted with materials to construct poultry houses (for both broilers and layers), and to purchase day-old chicks. The first batches of broilers have already been marketed, thus providing additional incomes to the mainly female farmers. The Telefood Micro-Projects, which increased from 12 in 2000 to 16 micro-projects in 2001, focused mainly in the areas of horticultural production, commercial poultry and rabbit raising, fisheries, agro-forestry and bee-keeping. These interventions from the FAO also cover the implementation of Emergency Assistance to facilitate a rapid response against the outbreak of the African Swine Fever and other emerging diseases. Other projects currently being implemented include support to the continuation of the Special Programme for Food Security (SPPS), funded by the Gambia Government and FAO with South/South cooperation from Bangladesh; the implementation of the Agricultural Census Project 2001 with funding contributions from UNDP, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Action Aid The Gambia (AATG). The Agricultural Rural Farmer Training Centre at Jenoi, supported by South/South cooperation from the Indonesian Government, continue to train mainly women participants from the sub-region in rice production throughout the year. Mr Speaker, The National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), maintained efforts to improve its institutional and research management capacity through the strategic planning process and agricultural research. Regional and international research collaboration as well as extension-farmer linkages were strengthened, whilst measures to obtain sustainable financing mechanisms for The Gambia’s agricultural research are also being explored. And it could be said that, the overall increases in crop hectare and production, can be partially attributed to concerted efforts of the research and extension service delivery systems of the Department of State for Agriculture. Subsequent to the liquidation of The Gambia Cooperative Union in 1998, there have been efforts to revitalise the Groundnut industry. In the process, all the stakeholders in the sub-sector including the European Union (EU) have committed themselves to genuinely support the revitalisation and re-organisation of the primary cooperative organisations (CPMSs), into viable business entities. 94 cooperative societies are currently in operation to facilitate groundnut production and marketing and for the extension of credit facilities to producers. The Agri-business Service Plan Association (ASPA), consisting of producer organisations, donors and industrialists, participated actively in determining the nominal producer price of groundnuts with Government providing the enabling environment. Difficulties continue to be experienced in groundnut marketing during the past year resulting in credit buying for the first part of the trade season. However, succinct strategic plans are set afoot to redress the problem". SOS Jatta also said: "All the sub-sectors under agriculture, once again recorded increases, with other crops (comprising of cereals, vegetables and fruits) forecasted to grow by 11.6% and groundnut by 5%, amounting to a 9.4% rise for all the crops. Output from Livestock, Forestry and Fishing are also estimated to grow by 3, 4 and 18 percentage points respectively. Agriculture is therefore forecasted to grow by 8.6%". "The Denton Bridge and Kaur Facilities have been handed over to the GDA in preparation for their divestiture before the 2002/2003 groundnut-trade season. A consultancy carried on the Facilities demonstrated the strategic importance of the river transport fleet in the success of groundnut marketing. In fact it was stressed that without barges there will be no groundnut season. Given the poor state of the barges of the river transport fleet and their vitality in assuring the success of the coming trade season, the GDA has entered into agreement with a Senegalese firm for the full repair of 22 barges for the period November 2001 to March 2002". The honest thing to do is to commend the government for not only acknoledging some of the difficulties that we have, but for endevouring to do something about them. We have a daunting task that we are trying to overcome in our own little way. The last thing we need is to be mis-represented. Have a good day, Gassa. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.