th February, 2015 at UTG Law Faculty at Kanifing Campus, our own UTG staff, 
Mr. Mohammed E. Jammeh, Acting Head, Department of Economics and Management Sciences, School of Business & Public Administration, launched a new book titled Teach Yourself Principles of Marketing. Guess what? Mr. Jammeh is an agriculture specialist because he earned a B.Sc. degree in General Agriculture and an MBA degree from Dalhousie University in Canada. Therefore, this new book, in my opinion, is primarily for agriculture producers. But, it could be handy for any line of business as well. Mr. Jammeh taught me Agriculture Economics at The Gambia College, School of Agriculture in 1986/1987 academic year. Now you know that he is old with a lot of knowledge and I am still young absorbing that knowledge that he generates in a book like this.
According to the Foreword of the book written by Professor of Marketing, Dr.Harold W. Lucius of Rowan University, USA, “Marketing is the force that harnesses a nation’s industrial capacity to meet society’s material wants.” This can be simply put in The Gambia context. That is, The Gambia envisages to be self-sufficient in food by 2016. The food (as a material want as alluded to by Dr. Lucius) that will be produced by the farmers is what will be wanted by the consumers. But how can the food producer make the consumer want the food? The simple answer is through marketing. That whole marketing process is what Mr. Jammeh has simplified in this book! The book makes it easy for the reader to better understand marketing managerial issues, consumer behavior, recurrent challenges in marketing, and tactical marketing.
In a nutshell, every person needs to have a copy of this book because it will be good for you in the long run. The agriculture projects and NGOs in the country that have producer-consumer relationship as part of their portfolio should definitely purchase a copy of the book for their staff. I strongly believe that the book can enhance their work. Am I doing marketing for Mr. Jammeh? Yes, but on a free-of-charge basis because he is still my teacher. I bought the book for cheap. I paid only D125.00 on the day of launching. Now, it would cost only D150 per copy. That is money worth investing in!!
Sidat Yaffa, Ph.D.
Contact: [email protected]
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