Lamin
F. Fatty, the agriculture minister of The Gambia College Students Union has
spoken about the devastating impact of the covid-19 pandemic especially on
schools and those in food supply chain in the country.
Mr.
Fatty, who was speaking in a recent exclusive interview with this medium,
stated that if not for the outbreak of this deadly virus, students would have
been on their normal practical at the college.
The
coming of this state of public emergency, he observed, has forced many
processors, marketers and even transporters indoors, thus posing an extremely
difficult situation for local businesses in the country.
“If
not for this deadly virus, students would have been on their normal practical
at the college but due to the state of public emergency, everyone is sitting at
home,” he said.
The
emergence of this deadly virus, Fatty indicated has even hampered agric
students at the college, who were anticipating a bumper harvest.
This,
he said, is because they were not constantly watering their garden beds
regularly as expected.
“Coronavirus is already having significant
negative effects on people along the food supply chain from producers to
processors, marketers, transporters and consumers”.
Mr. Fatty further explained that the vegetable
growers are now afraid to produce in large quantity because there is no readily
available market where they can sell their produce, even though the demand for
these produce is high.
“The state of the public emergency has caused
a lot of fear among Gambians and this has really affected our market because
the customers who are supposed to buy these produce are all indoors”.
He thus called on the government through the
Ministry of Agriculture to support the agriculture students at the Gambia
College in these trying moments so that they can achieve their objectives.
