By Binta Jaiteh
Honourable Madi MK Ceesay, National Assembly member for Serrekunda West constituency has requested Dr Demba Sabally, Minister of Agriculture to explain reason for the increase in fertilizer price.
Responding to an interview with The Voice newspaper, he said: “one will wonder what had happened to the stock government said they stores for this current farming season. It is a question that all Gambians should ask the Ministry of Agriculture to tell Gambians where this 2022 fertilizer gone to. Because they once told the public that there is enough fertilizer for the last season and this season.”
“Playing with the life of farmers is same as playing with the life of the average Gambians, if these fertilizers are not affordable to the farmers the yield will come down and the ton, what we are expecting from the groundnuts will fall and it will drastically affect the economy of this country. Where is the tax of the farmers that they are paying? This is the time government should come to their aid particularly the Ministry of Agriculture because the government should have budget so that such unforeseen circumstances will be immediately addressed,” he argued.
According to him, the increment is the most affected and difficult issue which large number of the country are facing, especially that one bag of fertilizer is costing D2500 “that is very expensive.”
He claimed that the government lacks ideas in tackling basic commodities this price hike issue has been going on for the past 5 to 6 years, and the government has not set up any policy or remedies to solve the situation.
“I always have the opinion that these basic commodities are not manufactured here they come from other countries our control on the price is limited but what we can do as a country or government is to see how we can mitigate them. These are some of things government should prioritize the expenditures and put it in the fertilizer package at an affordable price. The government should come up with price stabilization in subsiding some of the basic commodities. That is what one can do temporarily to break it down,” he explained.
He advised the government to pump lot of money and strategy into agricultural system so that the country can generate fund. He added that this government perhaps not lack the resources but “I don’t think they are committed to providing the needs of the country. The Gambians have suffered to high price, insecurity, rampant accident and lots to name few since the coming up of Barrow’s leadership. Also, you cannot count the number of murder cases, setting up a lot of commission of inquiries with no tangible reason and every day we getting from bad to worse,” he said.
