There is an
impending rice crisis in the making world wide and the peoplesof Haiti, Bangladesh, Philippineshave already began feeling the pinch of this
world crisis. Rice is the staple food for billions of people, particularly the
poorest people in the world. Majority of the peoples of China, India,
Asia in General, the Middle East and Africa
consume rice as their main staple food. In The Gambia, rice is it. The majority
of Gambians find it extremely difficult not to consume rice for 24 hours and
this is demonstrated by the amount of rice imported in this country annually.
Governments
in Asia have started taking the necessary
actions in the various countries to deal with these impending rice crises.
India, which is a major exporter of rice, have banned the exportation of none
basmati price, thus ensuring not only sufficient supplies for the nation's
poorest but also suppressing the rising price of rice domestically. The Philippines,
which imports a major supply of its rice needs, have also started negotiating
with other major rice exporting nations to ensure enough supplies for its
people.
The Gambia being a major consumer and
importer of rice needs to react on time to ameliorate and soften the blow of
the impending rice crisis. The Gambia
like most countries in the world allows market forces to determine the supply,
demand and price of rice, however, as the saying goes "desperate situation
demands desperate measures", the
government, private sector and the consumers should act immediately in
preparation of this inevitable shortage of rice that is facing the world. The
prices of foodstuff have increased drastically throughout the world and
Gambians are already feeling it despite the strengthening Dalasi. There should
be a multi-facetted and coordinated actions by all stakeholders and the
government should take the lead.
We have
already started witnessing actions of the people in Haiti,
Ivory Coast and closer to
home, Senegal
and all in reaction to the rising prices of foodstuff. The Government should
start now by first suspending all kinds of duties on imported foodstuff. All
taxes, import duties, sales tax, environment tax, Ecowas tax etc should be
suspended immediately and not only that, but should also be announced so that
all stake holders will be aware of this noble action of the government. The
Gambia Ports Authority should also reduce its port charges for imported
foodstuff. All these will have major effects on the situation at hand. Firstly,
it will give the importers more confidence to import more foodstuffs,
particularly rice and secondly, the prices of rice and other foodstuff will not
rise as rapidly as it would otherwise. Thirdly, it would ensure that there
would not be a serious shortage.
The
government should not only stop at the above actions, but should encourage the
commercial banks to reduce their interest rates on all LCs (letters of credit)
for foodstuff, particularly rice. The Central Bank should use its influence to
work with the commercial banks and come up with low interest rate on all LCs
dealing with foodstuff, preferably to as low as 8%. I know there would be some
businesspersons, who would take advantage of this to abuse the facilities, but
this should not deter us from doing so and besides with proper planning and consultation,
the right mechanism could be put in place counter such actions.
The
President, H.E. Alh. Dr. Yahya A. J. Jammeh
have been asking people to change their eating habit for a long time now,
however saying it in rallies and meetings is not enough. Government should come
up with a comprehensive programme to educate the people about the need to
change our eating habits. There are many benefits to it, especially when one
looks into the health implications. GRTS could work with the relevant government
departments to come up with very good educative programmes on the need for
people to change their eating habits and reduce the dependant on rice in
general. NGOs and other private organisations could be used as well, especially
the private radio stations. Government could work the private radio stations to
urge and encourage them to come up with programmes on this as part of their
social contributions among many they are already doing.
Lastly but
not the least the government should critically look into the food
self-sufficiency rhetoric and start taking concrete actions. The government
should start by seriously looking into the Kuntaur Rice Mill. This is one
institution, which if properly funded and managed, would make a big difference
in this effort for food self-sufficiency. This is a sleeping giant and its time
to wake it up and put it to work.
The private
sector, through the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry could be urged to
ensure that there is sufficient supply of foodstuff in the country in the next
few months especially during the rainy seasons. A coordinated effort by the
GCCI and total support by Government would go a long way in helping deal with
this impending crisis.There should be a
certain level of rice stock in the country at all times to avert shortages and
the resulting higher prices. I am quite sure with proper planning and dialogue
between government and the private sector, this can be achieved. The Government
should not get into importing and selling rice but should make the environment
conducive for the private sector to do that.
The people
of this country should also play their role by looking to their eating habits
and dependency on rice. We could drastically reduce our consumption of rice and
increase our consumption of other foodstuff grown locally such as coos, corn,
vegetables, yam, findi, cassava and many other locally grown foodstuffs. We do
not need to eat rice three times a day as most of us do. Poverty explains some
of our actions, however, we can still alter our eating habits to reduce our
dependency on imported food and at the same time reduce the health risks
related with certain foodstuff. By reducing for example our consumption of
imported rice and increase our consumption of locally produced foodstuff, we
will be empowering our local farmers and in the process assist in the fight
against poverty.
THERE IS NO
TIME, WE MUSTACTNOW.
