Nyang Njie, Economist and Social Commentator
By Fatou Sillah
Economist and social commentator Nyang Njie has called for the cultivation of medicinal marijuana in The Gambia as a means to revitalize the nation’s struggling economy. Speaking on Coffee Time with Peter Gomez, Njie argued that the production of medicinal marijuana could provide a lucrative alternative for Gambian farmers, particularly in light of declining groundnut yields.
“Now, it is a shame that the world over is starting to take a craze with medicinal marijuana. This is not to be used in the country, not an ounce of it will be used in the country,” Njie clarified. “But we have an environment, whereby, if a farmer can grow 10 kilos of high-grade medicinal marijuana, each kilo he can export for a minimum of $3500.”
Njie highlighted that while groundnut production is on the decline, largely because younger generations are turning away from farming, the introduction of medicinal marijuana farming could offer a lucrative alternative. He pointed out that many of today’s farmers’ children are reluctant to continue in agriculture due to the economic struggles their families have faced.
“So now if we really want to take our farmers out of poverty and yes, you are right the tonnage has been going down a year in and year out, because the sons of yesterday’s farmers don’t want to be today’s farmers because they’ve seen how farming has impoverished their parents,” He Said.
He further suggested that The Gambia could benefit from a progressive government that promotes greenhouse farming specifically for medicinal marijuana, under strict supervision. This initiative, Njie argued, would allow for the growth, processing, and export of the crop while providing economic opportunities for Gambian farmers.
“This has nothing to do with being liberal. It has everything to do with just being smart. Start greenhouse farming, purposely for medicinal marijuana on the highly controlled supervision whereby they grow, seal, export, and now a farmer can take his or her child to a university of his or her choice,” Njie added.
Njie clarified that medical marijuana should not be confused with “Jamba,” the street name for marijuana commonly smoked in The Gambia. He explained that medicinal marijuana is grown for pharmaceutical purposes, where the flowers are harvested, processed, and sold to companies that manufacture medical products
“Jamba, as you and I know it, is what people smoke. Medicinal marijuana is what you grow, cut the flowers, put them in the right environment, sell them to pharmaceuticals to make medicine out of it,” He Said.
Despite the potential benefits, Njie acknowledged the government’s hesitation to embrace this industry. He suggested that the government fears three main challenges, which he believes can be mitigated.
“They are afraid of three things, and all of these three can be mitigated. When we grow it in the country, people are going to have access to it, but now I’m taking them back to Economics 101. If local Jamba is selling for D40,000 a kilo and a farmer can make $3500 a kilo on their produce. Do you think they want to sell it locally? Someone offering $3,500 a kilo and the most you can make in the Gambia is D40,000, will you sell your high grade in The Gambia?
“No, so I think it’s more of tradition and being conservative and the sad thing is countries like the Gambia always wait until everybody gets into this, and we want to get into it, and we could have had a first move advantage because of the proximity of our country to Western Europe. We can package stuff here today. It’s in Europe the same day and the farmers get paid, handsomely,” He Said.