However, as much as the government wants to encourage more people to go back to the land, there must be better incentives in view of the hardships and drudgery farmers experience before presenting their finished and refined products.
Every farmer would love to sell their groundnuts to the government if a better price was offered. In the absence of better prices, these farmers would be left with no option but to sell their produce to foreign buyers, who resell these produce in our local markets.
It is in the news that some farmers in the Central River Region (CRR) have made up their minds to sell their groundnuts to local dealers rather than government purchasing points.
This, according to them, is due to the fact that local dealers are paying a better price for a bag of groundnut compared with the government. While local dealers are paying two thousand three hundred dalasis for a bag of groundnut, the government has decided to purchase a bag at two thousand two hundred dalasis or even less.
Agriculture contributes a significant percent in the country’s Gross Domestic Product. It is a fact that the country over the years exported groundnuts on a large scale but that trend has declined since then, mainly due to afla-toxin presence in the country among a host of other factors.
Government should instead support our local farmers to be able to improve their production capacity. If not in the long run, they wouldn't have customers as farmers will prefer selling their produce to local dealers instead of government agents.
For many years, local farmers have always complained about the low price paid by the government regarding sales of produce.
We believe if the government is ready to improve farming in the country, it should pay better and competitive prices to encourage farmers to be able to grow more. With this approach, farmers will always be ready to sell produce to the government.
It is hard that as alluded to by some farmers, The Gambia government and Ministry of Agriculture does not value the welfare of farmers. We all know that the price for a bag of fertilizer has shot the roof so selling their produce at a low cost means there is no need to venture into the trade.
Therefore, government and the Ministry alongside other stakeholders should revisit the move to encourage more farmers to trade with them. Until then, they will lose all their potential customers to local dealers and that is not good for the country.