Gassama, just thought that in the interest of FAIR DISCLOSURE people should be aware of what the Agriculture Minister was reacting to. The same newspaper you culled that article from (by the way, dated March 28) also carried the following piece. Remember that your government was boasting that there would be NO credit buying. Now, under pressure from the press they are admitting that there is indeed millions of dalasis of credit buying. Only God knows when the buyers will make good on the promissory notes. KB _______________________________________________________________________ The Groundnut Question ASPA, the Agriculture Department and what is known as the Groundnut Oversight Committee have decided to bring the groundnut marketing season to a close next Wednesday. This is not the first time that releases emanate from the Agriculture Department without informing farmers and the general public about what is known as Credit Buying. One could argue that the past releases could have been mute about the issue of Credit Buying as the situation was then in progress. But if such a major decision is taken to call the season to a close, the least to be expected from the authorities’ last release is to venture a word about the much talked about Credit Buying. This revolves around the issue of accountability. A decision was taken at the top level and not on a bottom /up approach as the release itself was informing both the general public and the farmers about a decision taken on an issue of life and death for many of them. Farmers were not consulted as it clearly transpired in the release. Number two, the release talks about the remaining groundnuts to be moved to buying points. Here we are asking poor farmers without money to transport their groundnuts within such a short notice. Are we not heading to a dramatic situation should most of the nuts fail to reach seccos? But what is also distressing, is that the ministry supremely ignores the concerns expressed by farmers about their plight. Credit buying was and is a reality but the authorities chose not to utter a word about its magnitude or otherwise not to talk of remedial measures aimed at addressing the phenomenon. We can understand that one is taken unawares once, twice, even three times but a fourth time, allowed to age by days, weeks and months following the general outcry turned an election agenda, is honestly unbelieavable. What is urgently needed now is A Word about the situation of Credit Buying from the authorities Culled from The Point of March 28, 2002. >From: Jungle Sunrise <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: This year's groundnut trade. >Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 09:28:07 +0000 > _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~