Dr. Ousman Gajigo, Economist Formerly With ADB
By Dr. Ousman Gajigo
About a week or two ago, two news items came up that encapsulated the low regard this current government has for the agricultural. In one of the news items, the vice president, Muhammad Jallow, revealed that the government has awarded Yonna and GACH the contract to procure 180 tractors. In the other news story, the Minister of Agriculture, Demba Sabally, blamed poor groundnut harvests on poor quality seeds and irregular rainfall. On surface, there is nothing remarkable about both stories. But on closer inspection, however, they reveal why the nation can have no hope with the Adama Barrow regime when it comes to improving and transforming the agricultural sector.
Let’s start with the Minister Sabally’s claim on groundnut harvests. It is not a revelation that the average groundnut yield was low last season. Indeed, the state of last season’s harvest was not an isolated occurrence. In fact, groundnut production has been on a downward spiral for decades. To blame poor harvest on irregular rainfall and low-quality seeds is simply to beg the question of why those effects have been allowed to matter given the government’s ability to mitigate their adverse effects.
Even before last season, the groundnut cultivation has faced serious problems in the country. In real terms, the price that Gambian groundnuts can fetch on the international market has fallen dramatically. The main reason is due to aflatoxin continuation. This is a chronic problem that has been screaming for a solution. But due to inaction, Gambian groundnutscultivation has long ceased to be a high-return activity due to being banned from human and animal consumption markets in Europe.
This reality has been known for over two decades. What’s more,solutions to address aflatoxin contamination are well known. Yet, there has not been any serious effort by this government to address this major problem for groundnut cultivation. More than any reason, this factor has been responsible for the poor market outcomes. Any government serious about addressing the plight of groundnut farmers would need to address aflatoxin contamination to increase the returns for farmers or promote alternative cash crop cultivation. Beyond the issue of financial returns, it is also in the country’s interest to address aflatoxin contamination because of its serious health implications.
So, Minister Sabally’s claim that irregular rainfall is the reason for the low groundnut yield last season is technically correct but completely inadequate coming from a policymaker. For one, it begs the question as to why the minister thinks this is a revelation. After all, Gambian agriculture is rainfall dependent simply because the government has failed to invest in irrigation. In fact, the limited irrigation infrastructure provided by development partners has not been maintained and has almost completely collapse. Is Minister Sabally unaware of the critical role of the government in helping poor farmers in accessingquality seeds? The minister’s only comment in this regard is that the government is waiting for donor assistance. One of the most reliable signs of official ineptitude is when a senior official refers to outside development assistance as the first go-to solution to address a national problem as if their primary role is project implementation.
If there had been sufficient investment in irrigation, occasional irregular rainfalls would have had far less devastating impact on the agricultural sector. For instance, farmers would substitute other crops or vegetables if groundnut yields fall. Similarly, if farmers had access to seed varieties resilient to well-known agricultural shocks, the impact of recent irregular rainfalls would have been limited.
It is interesting that the Minister did not reveal to the National Assembly another major way they have failed Gambian farmers – specifically, many farmers are still waiting to receive the payments for their groundnuts. This is a repeat from previous years when farmers have to wait for months after depositing their groundnuts before receiving payments. To compound that difficulty, the government decided to force farmers to receive their payments through Qmoney, which proved extremely onerous for most farmers.
Let’s turn to the Vice President Jallow’s remarks about the government’s procurement of the 180 tractors. If you recall, the Minister Demba Sabally proudly made the promise last year that the government would procure those tractors in time before last year’s rainy season. President Adama Barrow also repeated thisvery promise. This obviously did not happen, and neither President Barrow nor Minister Sabally bothered to apologize to Gambian farmers for their failed promises.
When the Vice President was recently asked why there was a delay in procuring the said tractors, he simply responded that there had been “some issues”. This is not the utterance of an official who take his responsibility seriously. Here we are today discussing the issue of highly needed agricultural machinery that would have proven immensely useful to farmers. The rainy season came and went without these needed farming implements. And yet, when the Vice President was given the opportunity to address this important issue, all he could musterwas that there were “some issues”?
Could it be that the reason why the Vice President would not elaborate would reflect very poorly on this government? I don’t know whether Vice President is personally aware of what truly happened or was deliberating prevaricating. But from what I have heard from multiple reliable sources, the initial procurement process went well and Yonna came out as the sole, legitimate winner. But pressure allegedly came from the State House to include GACH, which is partly owned by Abubakary Jawara. My understanding is that it is this relentless pressure to include GACH that led to the delay in the procurement by re-opening the process again. Not to put too fine a point on it, the whole procurement process was apparently corrupted to benefit a politically-connected businessman.
Let’s consider this very carefully. The government was willing to block or inordinately delay the procurement of much needed tractors simply because they wanted to reward a few politically-connected individuals. Does this sound like a government that is motivated by national development? The government owes the Gambian people transparency in the procurement of these tractors. I hereby urge the government to release details on this procurement process. I hope the National Assembly members would invite everyone involved in this procurement process to reveal what truly transpired.
In any case, it should not be surprising this government goes out of its way to reward politically connected individuals even if it comes at the expense of the whole country. The government did this when they took over a protected forest reserve and gave to it Abubakary Jawara for his basalt business even though he is perfectly capable of purchasing land like any private businessman. The government did this when they pushed Gambian entrepreneurs out of the cement importation business simply to reward Jah Oil. There are many other examples. So, this tractor procurement is another example of state capture where the interests of the few connected businessmen are placed above that of the whole nation.
The state of Gambian agriculture remains in a rut today as a direct result of both action and inaction by this government. The fact that we have an individual like Demba Sabally as Minister of agriculture is sufficient information to know that this government does not take the agricultural sector seriously. No one outside of the NPP leadership believes that Demba Saballyshould even come close to the doors of that Ministry. Yet he is occupying this important ministerial post not because of any competency in agriculture – of which he has none – but simply because of his defection from GDC. In other words, this ministerial post of his is a political reward even though it comes at the expense of having a competent official running the important Ministry of Agriculture, and Adama Barrow is happywith this state of affairs. Is it any surprise that The Gambia has not been registering much progress in this sector?