Dr. Ousman Gajigo
Last week, I visited several regions of the country. I was shocked to learn that there are still numerous farmers who have not received payment for their groundnut harvests after having deposited them at government collection points. This is not an isolated group of farmers in one location. I spoke to affected farmers who are located in far apart areas such as Baddibu and Fulladu districts.
In fact, I have recently spoken to a community leader who traveled all the way from Baddibu to the Kombos to inquire about late payments. This individual used his own resources to travel on more than one occasion, leaving behind his family and other responsibilities. Putting this sort of onerous burden on poor farmers is unconscionable.
The fact that farmers are still waiting until this month of April to receive payment is nothing short of criminal negligence. The rainy season in The Gambia typically starts in June. By December, almost all groundnuts are harvested. There is no significant variation between when the rainy season starts and when it ends. In other words, there should be no uncertainty about when farmers need to receive payments for their groundnut harvests. No government officials incur delays in getting their allowances or travel per diem, no matter how questionable their trips are.
Even the farmers that did receive payments were forced to go through an unnecessarily cumbersome process. This is because the government abruptly introduced a payment method without ensuring that farmers were adequately prepared for it. Specifically, the government decided last year to pay farmers for their groundnut harvest through Qmoney. This decision was made without any assessment beforehand to determine how accessible this would be for most farmers. Many farmers ended up making countless trips to urban areas on multiple occasions before they were able to receive their payments.
The introduction of this new payment process was not based on any efficiency grounds. First, there was no bidding process to select a payment method based on ease of access for farmers or geographic coverage. Second, when Qmoney was chosen through a completely hidden process, there was no sensitization of farmers to prepare them for the change. They were essentially left to navigate a new payment system that is unfamiliar to most of them. Indeed, most villages do not have agents where payments could be received. It was essentially a project chosen to benefit one company at the expense of farmers.
What makes this situation completely unacceptable is that the government made a point of threatening farmers against selling groundnuts outside of the country. One would think the government would therefore feel a special sense of responsibility in ensuring that farmers are paid not only with a good price but also paid on time. Yet, this is another year where farmers are forced to wait for months to receive payment after months of hard work.
For those of us following the fate of agriculture in this country, such events, while tragic, are not surprising. The agricultural sector goes way beyond just groundnut cultivation. Yet, going by the speeches of government officials of the Adama Barrow regime, one would think they put special emphasis on groundnut cultivation. However, the reality on the ground is completely different.
To understand the degree to which agriculture has fared badly under Adama Barrow, let’s look at the evolution of groundnut cultivation in The Gambia since independence in 1965. During the Jawara rule between 1965 and 1994, groundnut production in The Gambia was 112,000 tonnes per year on average. During the Yahya Jammeh rule between 1995 and 2016, the production was 99,000 tonnes on average per year. Under President Adama Barrow, groundnut production has been 43,000 tonnes per year.
In other words, while groundnut production fell by a small amount under Yahya Jammeh, it has plummeted under the government of Adama Barrow. Given the difficulties that farmers have been having in getting their payments in recent years, it is no wonder the groundnut sector has fared so badly under this current regime.
To underscore how ineffective the Adama Barrow government has been in agriculture, it is important to note that groundnut production is the sub-sector of agriculture that this government makes a point of supporting. Each year, they supply subsidized fertilizers, and the government makes a point of promising to pay farmers upon harvest. This is essentially the totality of the government’s intervention in the agricultural sector. Yet, as can be seen above, they have failed miserably. Other sectors such as livestock and horticulture are completely neglected.
This failure in the agricultural sector should not really be a surprise to anyone. To understand how a particular sector is faring in the country, please pay careful attention to the qualifications of the top officials in that sector. A government that takes agriculture seriously would not have appointed an individual such as Demba Sabally. If a president is not aware that an individual such as Demba Sabally is unsuited to the role of Minister of Agriculture, then that president is demonstrating his unsuitability for the office of the Presidency.