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| Farmers |
Farmers in the
length and breadth of the Gambia, have raised their voices on the
threats to food security. All the farmers who spoke on the Agriculture
Minister's tour have lamented the same situational problem: lack of
seeds, fertilizer, farm implements, lack of adequate water or rain for
the crops and animal intrusion on farm lands.
Farmers made these
assertions during the tour of Mr. Omar Amadou Jallow, the Minister of
Agriculture, which started on Monday 22nd of October 2017 in Essau in
North Bank Region and ended on Saturday 28th October 2017 in Ndemban,
West Coast Region.
According to the
Minister of Agriculture, the purpose of his tour is to get firsthand
information from the farming communities with regard to challenges they
encountered in this cropping season, in order to better formulate
strategies in order to overcome them in the coming cropping season as
well as gauge the impact of Agricultural projects in rural communities.
"As the Minister of
Agriculture, it is mandatory on me to reach to farmers, listen to their
concerns, communicate their concerns to Government so that strategies
could be developed that can address and ensure food self-sufficiency,"
OJ stated.
With regard to
fertilizer, the farmers in all the regions visited by the Minister
thanked his Ministry's intervention in the reduction of the cost of
fertilizer for this cropping season.
However, most
farmers informed the Agric. Minister that while there was a reduction in
the cost of fertilizer, unscrupulous business persons bought the
fertilizer in large quantities only to sell it back to them at
exorbitant prices making this most important farm input unaffordable.
They called on the Ministry's intervention to curb the practice.
In response, Agric.
Minister Jallow told farmers that Government reduced the fertilizer for
the benefit of the Gambian farmers so that they can afford the cost and
improve production.
"Why should you
allow unscrupulous businessmen to purchase the fertilizer at the price
given to the farmers and take them to other areas or sell to them at
exorbitant prices without reporting them to the local authorities or the
police just because they are your relatives, neighbors etc," the
Agriculture Minister asked during his meeting with farmers. Agric.
Minister Jallow further told them that they should not allow any form of
relationship to breed injustice which can lead them to suffer, as in
the case of fertilizer.
With regard to
water for crops, farmers in all the regions visited, informed the
Minister of the poor harvest this year, due precisely to the long dry
spell in September, which made crops like sorghum and late millet to
fail at the maturing stage, render all their efforts useless. They told
the minister that the rains at the onset of the season, was very
promising only to end up in a long dry spell that eventually affected
the maturity of the crops.
In response to
their lamentations, the Minister of Agriculture informed the farmers
that droughts are natural and depend nowadays on the change of the
climate.
He said what
happened this year, is an indication that climate change is real and as a
Government, they will try and diversify agriculture.
"We cannot continue
to rely on rain fed agricultural activities," the Minister stated; that
what we need now is irrigation and this does not only mean river
irrigation tapping underground water for agricultural purposes. "And my
Ministry is going to seriously look into this," he said.
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