By Mamadou Edrisa Njie
“If the trend continues [Covid pandemic], I will spend all my profits on my family, and the end result would be, I will be out of business,” lamented the Proprietor of Kinteh Jula Business Enterprise, Mr. Lamin Kinteh, as businesses, particularly small entities, started to feel the pinch of the global outbreak of the Coronavirus disease-Covid-19.
The young agripreneur in Kerewan village, Lower Baddibu District of North Bank Region (NBR), has revealed how coronavirus outbreak is making him spend his months ago savings to feed his family, saying it has also resulted to low sales of his agricultural products.
The government, Kinteh stated, needs to support smallholder farmers, financially, to boost their productions- this includes quality seeds, fertilizers and farming inputs.
In an interview with Mansa Banko Online, the owner of Kinteh Jula Business Enterprise, who is in his 30s, said “all my vegetables are perishing due to lack to proper storage facilities and good market price”.
According to Kinteh, the COVID-19 causes more harm than good in his region, noting that businesses there have stopped.
“Today, 30th March, I am selling a kilo of cucumber at nine (9) dalasis and two week before, I was selling a kilo of cucumber at D16.00,” he said in reinforcing his points. This has seriously affected his business, as he witnessed a drop in his sales, he also disclosed.
Presently, he continued, “the situation is getting worse daily, because my shop and many other shops are closed. And I entirely rely on my sales-profit- to feed myself and family”.
He explained, “People like me are selling and supplying agricultural products-seed and fertilizers- and if we are told to close, definitely, agricultural productivity will decrease.” He said he supplies women gardeners in his native village, Kerewan, and other surrounding villages; but with the current situation, it’s not possible do so.
Kinteh, a breadwinner of his family, called on the government to reconsider its decision, especially for people like him who are selling agricultural products. He reasoned that his business is contributing to the agricultural sector but not threatening the sector.
“This is the time we need to increase our production more and have more storage facilities to avert similar situation in the near future,” he advised.
In his view, lack of proper storage facilities is also a major contributing factor for the country to face any food crisis.
The Kinteh Jula Enterprise boss used the interview to urge the government and projects to support smallholder farmers with cold storage facilities, maintaining this would enable them to keep their farm produce.
