Dr. Jaiteh,
I have to confess that I may have missed your point of contention on the education issue.
You’re right that despite so many projects - Jahally/Patcharr, RDP, OMVG, etc. – Gambians are more dependent on imported food today than ever before.
Personally, I do not see anything wrong with the mechanization of farming. My concern is that the 500 tractors will be used as voter inducement and, quite often, most of the 'farmers' that receive these tractors barely know how to plant a seed in the ground. They are the Gambian equivalent of the South American latifundia, with President Jammeh at the helm.
And The Gambia has this inexplicable obsession with peanuts that my Jahanka cousins can only explain away as our appetizing desires for domodaa and mbarbaka.
The hard toiling ones (with no political connections whatsoever) that use the backbreaking hoe from sunrise to sunset, constitute the bulk of the farming population. This layer of the peasant population is so pauperized that they can barely feed themselves all year round much less keep their children in school.
If we look at the Asian model, especially the economies of the East Asian Tigers, we will discover that these countries used indigenous means to speed up and dramatically increase their economic growth. Particular emphasis was given to education, industrialization, and trade; and with their skilled labor and readily available markets, they saw a level of development in so short a span that it even baffled Western economists.
It has long been argued that Africa’s bane is its leadership. Over four decades now, we are still trying to find our footing in our this independent(sic) world. Our societies are characterized by stubborn dictatorships, endless civil strife, inept and inflated civil services, massive corruption and all the other ills that drive our brothers and sisters across North African deserts to die in the Mediterranean.
At a time when Europe and the North Amrica are closing their borders to immigration (clandestine or legal), the last thing that Africa would want to do is encourage brain drain. If the further exportation of our brains to the West is our 21st century version of poverty reduction, then The Gambia or indeed Africa is doomed.
Thanks,
Momodou.
Malanding Jaiteh <[log in to unmask]> wrote: If one is to go by the NADD Manifesto, The Alliance's Document and the
statement by SoS Touray that the APRC government is to provide farmers
500 tractors, looks like Gambians are poised for the same old, same old
- dump more of our hard borrowed cash into the agriculture basket. By
now it should be clear to all that the trouble in the agricultural
sector is more than just lack of funding. Few would disagree that
dispite two governments, aid from two Chinas plus the West and even
Iran, countless Departments of Agriculture, projects (Mixed Farming,
GARD, Jahali-Pacharr, LADEP) institutions and agencies (NARI, NADA),
and billion of Dalasi, the Gambia is neither self-sufficient in food
production nor has it increase earning from agriculture. Infact the
contribution of agriculture to our national economy has been on the
decline while all these is going on. Given the current state of the
physical environment (climate and water resources) and economic
environment (globalization and crop pricing), it is hard to imagine what
agriculture can do for the Gambia.
Given the above, I would argue that it is high time we take a second
look at agriculture (represented by the Axe and the Hoe on our coat of
arm) as the engine to national development efforts since independence.
I would go a step further to ask the incoming government (APRC, NADD or
The Alliance) to make a "put man on the moon" kind of declaration on
education. Cornerstone of this would be immediate expansion of the
University system and begining 2010 to train free of charge:
2500 undergraduate degree and 100 graduates each year (2010 - 2015)
5000 undergrads and 500 graduate degrees ( after 2015)
In addition to free training, the government should negotiate with US,
EU and other large economies to help provide these with temporary worker
visa. In return the students will be required to pay through their
employers 10% of their salary towards re-embursing the Gambia
government. The idea is to borrow and invest in a product more
marketable than peanuts.
Some back of the envelop calculation:
At the end of the fourth year, with 10000 students * $2,500 per year
tuition is $25,000,000 (the cost of 500 tractors)
suppose 50% of those landed in a job in the UK or US ($35000) per year.
Remittance at 10% of salary is $3,500 * 5000 = $17,500,000. Nay Bad!
and defintely more than what we get from peanuts these days.
This would not include money sent home to family and friend, on
vacations (knowing you do not have to worry about the visa office), on a
retirement house or two (every Gambians wish).
Infact we are losing that many to immigration as we speak. Just that the
ones we are losing now are less prepared to survive in Babilon, with
barely a driver license much more a high school diploma to compete the
skilled labor from Poland or Mexico.
Perhaps I am just dreaming. Certainly I do hope its a dream come true.
Malanding Jaiteh
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