culled from the Point newspaper 2/21/2002 Farmers Ask For Tobaski Money As the holy feast of Edul-Adha commonly known as “Tobaski” draws near, several farmers across the country have expressed their dissatisfaction over the government’s failure to provide money for their groundnut proceeds inorder to take care of their children clothes, rams and other necessities for the event. The farmers who called at this office said that credit buying is worse this year than ever before. They said: “ Journalalisolou teeyaa notoo bay kereng ney fang, fang” meaning journalist credit buying is definitely going on, an old Baba Ceesay in Jarra told this reporter. According to many, the money that is normally brought at the different buying centres is far less than the money needed to pay for the nuts. The procedure, they said, is first come first serve business whenever there is news that some money has come. “If you are late, you will find no money. ” Ali Mbye who claimed to be a farmer in the Central River Division who do not want his village to be named told this reporter that they depend on their groundnut proceeds to buy clothes and rice for their family members, particularly for those of them who are not blessed with children sponsoring them in the civil service. Therefore government, he opined, should try their utmost to wipe their tears. “We have suffered and toiled at the mercy of snakes and scorpions during the season, and when it is time to get our money, we suffer and cry again, this is very unfair,” he said. They called on the government to do something before the tobaski. The state of groundnut buying in the past years, he added, has been without its problems for years as farmers were normally giving promisary notes to get their money days or weeks later. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To 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] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>