The tour will also give you the opportunity to roll out some of your aspirations and plans for national development. However, it is important that during this countrywide tour, you and your technocrats focus on issues directly affecting Gambians, especially those in the rural areas.
2024/2025 groundnut trade season
Mr President, as this year’s groundnut trade season is about to begin, farmers across the country are eagerly waiting to know what price is in the offing this year, since last year’s price was D38,000 per tonne.
While we acknowledge the fact that since you came into power in 2017 you have been increasing the price per tonne, it is however important to note that farmers in the country, despite inadequate modern farming equipment, are doing their utmost best.
Therefore, it is essential you don’t only listen to the concerns of farmers with a view to addressing them. It’s also crucial that your government continues to subsidise the groundnut price in order to ensure the farmers have a good price.
It's an open secret that if the price of groundnut is not attractive, most of the farmers in the country will prefer to sell their groundnuts in neighbouring countries like Senegal, which will not be good for our economy.
Mr President, farmers who spoke to the media last year expressed dissatisfaction withlate payments for their groundnuts, which should be avoided this year. Farmers should be paid fair prices and in advance to support a successful harvest and appreciate them for the sweat of their brow. This year, groundnuts should not be purchased on credit.
It should be noted that agriculture is the backbone of the country’s economy and a major foreign exchange earner. Again, it should be borne in mind that, as a nation, we should focus on irrigation to attain food self-sufficiency. The country has a vast land, and if rightfully utilised, the nation can reduce the amount of rice we import as well as foreign exchange expenditure.
Mr President, we believe that Jahally-Pachar alone should be able to feed the entire country. Therefore, we expect the government to work with its close partners, especially The People's Republic of China, and South Korea to rehabilitate and increase production capacity of rice.
Water shortage in some rural communities and urban areas
Mr President, water is a basic necessity, and it is disheartening to read in various news outlets that we still have some communities in both rural and urban areas that are seriously facing acute water shortage, especially in the provinces. These people are not asking for much; all they want is for the government to help them with clean and potable drinking water. Therefore, as you go on your tour, it’s important that people are given the opportunity to express themselves freely. In fact, this will even help you to get firsthand information of some of the difficulties rural Gambians are facing. Your government should be able to provide boreholes to some of these communities to fill the gap of water scarcity.
Mr President, your government’s partnership with countries like Japan and India can provide support to ease the water shortage being experienced in the country. You should take that opportunity to obtain support in areas of great importance to the people of The Gambia.
Electricity supply and good road network
Mr President, you have been quoted, from statements in several of your gatherings, as saying that by 2025 the entire country will have electricity supply. While this is a good vision, we still have quite a number of communities that are without electricity supply. Viable socioeconomic development will be hard to realise in the absence of electricity supply. If indeed we want to progress as a nation, we must focus on electricity supply, agriculture and infrastructural development. Therefore, it’s quite important that your administration focuses on this, thereby creating job opportunities for young people in rural Gambia. We are confident that if many big settlements in rural Gambia have electricity, many young people will involve in welding/electric–powered vocations and other jobs and lucrative activities for their livelihoods. Again, while you are expanding your road infrastructure projects, there are still communities in the country that are hard to reach as a result of the bad road network. A good road network helps connect communities, thereby boosting agriculture and tourism, and enhances access to education and health care.
Finally, Mr President, this tour should not revolve solely around politics for the 2026 elections. Political bickering should be avoided throughout the tour. Instead, the tour should focus on fostering peace and unity, ensuring that politics does not create division among us. The primary agenda should remain centred on achieving your development goals leading up to 2026.
People have pressing issues that need to be addressed. These concerns include the high cost of living, lack of jobs, electricity and shortage of potable water. It’s a constitutional requirement tour, thus we expect you and your delegation to focus on developments and people’s interests, such as listening to issues affecting Gambians. Cattle owners have also been raising concerns about the lack of enough cattle drinking points and areas for grazing, resulting in many cattle migrating to Senegal. We hope that your government will work towards addressing these issues.