The following is culled from Foroyaa news paper burning issues.

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NO: 77/2002   21 - 24 November, 2002

Editorial

Trade Season

A New Agriculture Head

The president has reshuffled his cabinet. The Secretary of State for Trade
Mr.
Musa Sillah is replaced by Momodou Sallah, the former Managing Director of
AMRC.
The Agriculture portfolio has been removed from Mr.Hassan Sallah and
assumed by the President just as the energy portfolio. The president
however, has not been able to solve the problems of NAWEC. He brought
generators only to discover that the transmission lines have to be changed
before they could reduce our electricity shortage problems. Now hundreds of
millions have to be taken as a loan to replace the transmission lines.
These loans will have to be paid by the consumers of electricity.

Needless to say, power houses will need more foreign exchange to operate
while consumrers pay in dalasis. This is what ultimately leads to
operational problems and the privatization of services.

Now the president has assumed the Agriculture portfolio. He will not have
the time to visit farmers. He will simply be doing what he already has
authority to do, that is to listen to advices of the technical staff and
make policy decisions.

A change of faces does not lead to a change of policies and realities. The
government had simply failed to provide the conducive  environment for
public or the private sectors response to the purchase of groundnuts

A public sector regime would have been possible if the funds recovered by
AMRC were put into the groundnut sector in collaboration with cooperative
societies.
This could have earned income for the AMRC, the Federation of Cooperative
Societies and the farmers.

On the other hand government could have encouraged Gambians who have been
engaged in the groundnut trade to have funds by introducing treasury bills
purely for the groundnut subsector and provide funds in partnership with the
private sector to purchase the groundnuts and recover their investment after
sale. As it stands the government is simply working for investors to
purchase  the nuts. The farmers depend on chance to survive.

The increase in the cost of living no longer permits the holding of the pay
of the farmers for long. Groundnuts earn foreign exchange but farmers are
paid in dalasi. If payment for farmers' crops is delayed for months after
crops have been delivered their earnings will depreciates.

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