By Assan Bah
President Adama Barrow has concluded his meetings at the North Bank Region where discussions in all meetings were dominated by farmers’ cries of poor harvest of groundnut in this year’s cropping season.
At the final joint meeting in Ngayen Sanjal, Samba Jallow, the chief of Sabach Sanjal called on the government to put in place control mechanisms to ensure that grazing areas are protected from deforestation.
“Our animals are dying due to insufficient feed in the bush,” he lamented.
Re-echoing the cries of his counterparts in the region, he appealed for the government’s support in the upcoming cropping season, saying there is big failure in this year’s groundnut season.
The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Security, Dr Demba Sabally reported that a two-million dollar storage/cooling facility is being constructed in Farafenni by the Gambia government through the GIRAV project.
He said these communities are one of the biggest tomato cultivators in the country and this facility will enable them to sell their produce at better prices.
“The government is also building a pasture field for livestock feeding in Sabach Sanjal,” he added.
Speaking at the gathering, Amat NK Bah, the Minister of Local Government, Lands, and Religious Affairs, advised local authorities to always guard their forests for animal feeding, stating that most of these grazing areas have been deforested to farmlands.
He encourages politicians to always engage in mature politics by engaging in politics of disagreement rather than politics of violence, stressing that there will be no development in the absence of peace.
He advised local authorities to always judge in the interest of the truth and nothing else and promised to have a senior management meeting of all the Alkalos, and Chiefs to resolve all outstanding issues in peace.
On his part, the President said he is with his technicians who will note down all the people’s concerns and will see how to address the issues raised.
He said: “The roads that are not constructed in some of these areas, we still have road projects on the pipeline and the Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure is in the process of identifying these roads which will be started by 2025.”
He further said: “I promised to electrify the entire country before 2026 and everyone is a witness as this project is not far from completion. We believe that the country cannot develop if people do not have electricity supply. Electricity changes the livelihood of the people.”
“The news of poor groundnut produce keeps on repeating itself in all my meetings in the region. We will ensure that everything will be looked at and we see how best to help those affected farmers. My team is taking note of all your concerns and will come back here and conduct proper investigations on the issues,” President Barrow assured farmers.
Meanwhile, he announced that the government would buy groundnut at thirty-eight thousand Dalasi (D38,000) per ton.
“The government will be spending D18,000 per ton. We also sold fertilizer at 1,100, from the D2,700 we bought it,” he explained.
