The agricultural land is what is left to enable the farming population of The Gambia to be the owners of the means of production. If this land is given away all farmers will become landless and hostages to new land owners.
The Gambian farmers should be alert to the agricultural policies of the current government and those parties that are putting Gambian farmland for sale rather than empower the family farms to put as much land into productive use as would eradicate their poverty. That is the only guarantee to sustainable development.
There are areas where investment should be encouraged to enhance private sector input in development. This area should be clearly identified so as to ensure that they are supplement and not a substitute to self-reliant and self-determined development.
