The correct road to eradicate poverty in agriculture
The Gambia is fortunate not to be like South Africa or Zimbabwe where land has not been taken from the traditional owners and put in the hands of a few. The land has mainly been in the hands of traditional owners and those they give land to do farming. The main problem of the farmers has been the inability to purchase the agricultural inputs so as to mechanize and expand farming on a larger scale.
Hence any government which is interested in eradicating poverty has the duty to invest in cooperative banking to enable farmers to access money without interest to purchase farm inputs to expand farming. This is how farmers could be transformed from poor to middle income status.
On the other hand, some African governments are ready to make their farmers poorer by giving their land to large scale investors who would introduce large scale farming at the expense of grassroots farmers. The end results of such investments everywhere in the world have been to transform grassroots farmers into landless poorly paid farm workers, thus introducing conflicts between the traditional land owners and those who usurp their land. Only a government which lacks foresight will introduce such a policy in the 21st century after they have been proven to be causes of rural poverty instead of enhancing rural prosperity.
