| Editorial : THE PRESIDENT IS ELECTED TO HEAL AN AILING GROUNDNUT TRADE Look at the picture on the cover with the eye of a farmer. It is an eye sore, isn’t it? Advertisement: The farmers have spent 500 dalasi to buy bags to put their nuts so as to take them to the Secco. They used their own labour power to load the carts and transport the bags of groundnuts to the buying points, known as a Secco. Instead of receiving their money on the same day, it has been months since the farmers at Baati Njol had taken their groundnuts to the Secco but are unable to get any money. Now the bags are getting worn out and their nuts are beginning to go to waste. What was toiled with sweat is now at the mercy of the dust and the pests. There is continuous call for people to go back to the land. These farmers did not have to heed to a call. They belong to the land. They have nothing other than the Land. They start clearing their fields as early as April and then go into the strenuous work of crushing nuts to produce seeds. This is linked to working on the land after the first rains and investing money to purchase fertilizer. All this is done with the hope that at the end of the rainy season there would be a trade season which would enable them to recover their investments and get returns for their sweat. The Government needs to move away from paying lip service to agricultural development and look into the long standing problem of fair producer price and speedy marketing of agricultural produce. Without addressing these two problems the problem of rural poverty could never be addressed. The praises are enough. The time has come to focus on the shortcomings so that meaningful efforts could be made to address them. Poverty is the worst illness on earth. Any head of state who could cure a nation of poverty deserves a price for being a champion of promoting good physical and mental health. Gambians want their executive to focus all its energy to the eradication of poverty. Suffice it to say that finding a solution to credit buying or the non purchase of agricultural produce is the key means to poverty eradication in an agrarian society. |
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