Agriculture Minister Amie Fabureh has told the National Assembly that a total of thirty-six thousand one hundred and eight (36,108) metric tons of groundnuts had been crushed into crude oil from 2016 to 2020.
She’s responding to the member for Upper Saloum, Hon. Alhagie Mbow who wanted her to inform the august assembly about the total amount of groundnuts processed into crude oil from 2016 to 2020 by the GGC, and the total revenue generated during the period.
Minister Fabureh outlined that in 2016, 5,842; 1,392 in 2017; 21,419 in 2018; 11,901 in 2019; and in 2020,1,396 (Metric tons) were processed, respectively.
“A total of 2,000 in 2016, 578 in 2017, 6,012 in 2018, 3,062 in 2019, 0 (zero tons processed) in 2020 metric tons of crude oil were processed during the period”, she said. She added that a total of 11,652 metric tons of crude oil were processed, which generated a grand total of D696,549,343 during the period.
Hon. Mbow also asked the Minister to tell the assembly, the reason why only 30 percent of the metric tons were processed into crude oil.
Madam Fabureh replied that only 30 percent was processed into crude oil because they didn’t have the appropriate machinery to process groundnut in bulk. “That is why it is important for us to have refining machines, whereby we can process a lot of groundnut into refined oil and also other products”, she said.
“What plans does the Ministry have to ensure that the issue is resolved, considering the fact that the country is purchasing a lot of groundnut in 2022?”, Hon. Mbow continued to ask.
The Agriculture Minister argued that there is the need to have refining machine and that the plan of procuring the machine is in the pipeline.
“We need your support so that we can have funds (required resources) to procure those machines, so that we can process groundnut in the country. We can process it into oil, soap and butter”, she told lawmakers.
Member for Tumana, Hon. Foday NM Drammeh, also asked whether the Ministry of Agriculture has done any assessment to determine the cost of the refining machine.
Minister Fabureh answered that she has engaged managers under the Ministry, who had done some findings and they know the cost of the refining machine. She, however, added that they would communicate the cost of the machine to the assembly to ensure the procurement of the machine.
On whether there is capacity to refine groundnut into oil, if the machine is provided, as enquired by the Member for Jarra West, Hon. Kajali Fofana, the minister answered in the affirmative, saying there is capacity and also indicated that technology evolves daily, coupled with the graduating of young scientists who could be recruited to do the work.
Hon. Drammeh of Tumana Constituency asked whether the Ministry had any plans to revive cotton industry. Fabureh informed them that her ministry has funded a pre-feasibility study for the sub regional cross-border massive cotton value chain program.
She continued: “This study assessed the reasons, the failure of the cotton sector in the Gambia, with lessons learnt from such collapse; and a way forward to rejuvenate and sustain the activity of the whole value chain, including the revival of the industrial tool (Basse Cotton Ginnery).”
The assessment, she added, also include the implementation of other industrial activities of the value chain such as the extraction and refining of cotton seeds oil and the production of feed meal for the livestock.
According to her, the said report has been submitted with the following recommendations: Setup regional follow up or task force committee involving all the relevant stakeholders; Cotton growers and senior officials of different stakeholders to discuss on unfolding activities related to cotton production; and Initiate public private partnership in cotton production.
