By Nelson Manneh
Adama Ceesay, a farmer from Jarumeh Koto in the Central River Region of the Gambia, informed Foroyaa that farmers are not happy with the price of groundnuts put forward by government this year.
Mr. Ceesay who walked into Foroyaa said the price at which the government wants to buy groundnut this year, is making many to be reluctant in selling their produce at groundnut buying points, because it is a give-away price and does not favour them.
“By looking at things, we now know that it is not the interest of this government to elevate the livelihood of farmers. We want the government to allow us to sell our groundnuts to any business person who offers the best price and many farmers are waiting and hoping for such a person to come their way,” he said.
“We want them to know how much the price of groundnut is per ton, at the world market so that we can see whether the price they are talking about commensurate with the world market price,” Mr Ceesay said; that government sold fertilizer at a high price last season and want farmers to sell their groundnut at a give-away price.
“Farming is one of the most difficult trades in the world, especially in the Gambia. The labour is manual, and this government and the previous ones before it, have never come up with measures to reduce the cost involved in farming,” he said.
Mr Ceesay said anybody who knows about farming in this country, will be able to justify how difficult it is in the Gambia.
“Our youth have all migrated from rural to urban areas because they know the suffering we endure as farmers, and worst of all, the little we get from it,” Ceesay said. He argued that there is no control on commodity prices at the market in the country, and asked why government should put a fixed but low price on farmers’ nuts. Foroyaa promises to monitor the groundnut trade and update the readership accordingly, in next week’s editions.
