Farmers Still Owed Thousands of Dalasis The Daily Observer (Banjul) NEWS October 21, 2002 Posted to the web October 21, 2002 Banjul Reports reaching the Daily Observer indicate that Gambian farmers are still owed thousands of Dalasis as outstanding balance for the purchase of their groundnuts. The farmers hardest hit are those in the Upper River Division. This was disclosed during the joint Government of The Gambia and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) Country Opportunities Strategy Paper (COSOP) review workshop held at the Senegambia Beach Hotel last week. Musa Jawneh, president of the National Farmers' Platform said that his office was informed that a total debt of about 100 tones of groundnuts fee was still owed to farmers. "It is a very sympathetic situation for those farmers who are affected because it is almost a year now and they (farmers) are yet to receive their monies. Farmers should really be encouraged rather than discouraged because they are the backbone of the country's economy and main foreign exchange earner," he said. Mama Manneh of Gamcot expressed disappointment in the manner which groundnut producers been treated in this country by the concerned authorities. He said statistics have shown that groundnut producers were the poorest category of farmers in the country instead of being the richest. He said: "Non farmers are saying everything is okay with the farmers while everything is wrong with them especially in Upper River Division where every Tom, Dick and Harry is a groundnut buyer. "These so-called groundnut traders would come and take groundnut from the farmers with the promise that they would give them their monies within a short period. "Farmers are really suffering in the hands of such bad middlemen. These type of buyers don't have mercy on innocent farmers." He appealed to the authorities to look into the welfare of farmers in the future especially the the groundnut producers so that they would produce more groundnut and other crops. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~