The tour delegation from the Ministries of Finance and Economic Affairs, and Agriculture, which included the Ministers Mambury Njie and Madam Amie Fabureh, respectively, visited the Medina Kiaf in Kiang and Kerr Mahmud Fana in Niamina groundnut selling points (Seccos) as well as Pacharr rice fields, meant to see for themselves, and gather first-hand information, from groundnut farmers on how the groundnut trade season is unfolding in the rural Gambia.
Mrs. Agriculture Fabureh, in her remarks during the visit, hailed the Gambia government and the Finance Ministry for establishing a good price for groundnut for this year’s trade season, which stands at twenty-eight thousand dalasis (D28,000) per ton.
“This was an unprecedented development, one that had never existed in the history of GGC in the country”, intimated the country’s first female Agriculture Minister.
For his part, the Finance Minister reassured that government would provide the necessary support to the farmers to ensure that they grow to achieve sustainable livelihood.
“Government will not only buy groundnut, but ensure that processing locally is also done in order to add value to the produce”, Njie said. He also advised the Gambia Groundnut Corporation (GGC) officials to regularly carryout visits to farmers, in order to gain reliable information about their conditions and needs, noting that could help to easily solve the problems farmers are facing.
“Over 2 billion dalasi have been spent to buy groundnut, ensuring that farmers have no cause to complain as far as the buying and selling of their groundnuts is concerned,” Permanent Secretary (PS) Mr. Abdoulie Jallow of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, told his audience.
He also pointed that the Ministry had done every efforts to ensure that the government does not buy groundnut on arrears, and that the price would be good that no Gambian would have to cross the borders to sell his or her groundnut.
