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Gambia land grabbing takes international dimension
Thursday, 26 May 2011 13:04
(JollofNews) - A week or so back, the BBC reported that Bangladesh was turning to Africa to satisfy its desire for self
sufficiency. Gambia is one of three countries named as having agreed to lease land to the Asian country.
But the question lingering in the minds of many Gambians now is where this land space will come from.
President Yahya Jammeh`s food self-sufficiency crusade, famously dubbed `Back-to-the-land`, is already stretching patients at home, with many communities aggrieved by what some observers described as land grabbing by the president.
In Gambia, the most valuable assets of the mostly poverty stricken people are their lands, on which they depend for their subsistence living. However, lately this has been the focus of attention of the president, who have demonstrated beyond doubt he would stop at nothing to acquire as much property in Gambia as he can reach.
"Two Bangladeshi companies have already signed deals to lease unused cultivable land in Uganda, Tanzania and Gambia," reported the BBC.
Already, the rationale behind the much talked about `back-to-the-land` crusade in Gambia is seriously being questioned. This is because not only that all state resources are spent on the personal farming activities of the president, but also, because he uses what tantamount to forced labor in his farming ventures. Abundantly available source of cheap labor (civil servant) has seen an incredibly high demand for more cultivable lands by the president, and the victims are gullible supporters of the ruling APRC party across the country.
As one observer put it: “After the local land grabbing exercise and the lease, which land is then available for those who respond to the "Back to the land call...?"
Families have been set alight literary, villages subjected to acrimonious relationships by a few individuals who take it upon themselves to give out communally owned lands to the president in the name of their communities. And interestingly, despite being aware of the controversial nature of such gestures, President Yahya Jammeh goes ahead accepting such gifts, anyway.
But besides the issue of space availability, there is also the question of how the government came to this very important decision with the Bangladeshis, without ordinary Gambians having a clue about it.The agreement, according to the BBC report, involved the leasing of thousands of hectares of “unused cultivable” farmland to two privately owned Bangladeshi companies.
“Under the plans, the Contract Farming System will enable Bangladeshi companies to get at least 60% of the produce.
In return Bangladesh will train African farmers in rain-fed rice cultivation, seed conservation and irrigation,” the report added.
But according to one young aspiring farmer who begged for anonymity, it is obvious that deserving local farmers are not going to benefit from such training. “People working for the president at his farms will benefit from these trainings,” he said, adding, “what will be the essence of training us if we can`t get land to cultivate on in the first place?”
This aggrieved farmer who, until now, has been a stick-in-the-mud supporter of the president, argued that already farmers are at loggerhead among themselves for lack of farming space, so “if Yaya Jammeh mortgages our lands to some strangers how do we get land to work in response to his so-called back-to-the-land crusade?”
Written by JollofNews
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Comments
How is such a contract going to benefit Gambians much more those whose land happen to have bee grabbed? One thing am concerned about is those very people whose lands he grabbed are the very ones supporting him. They only cry faul when he touches their lives.Good for them because when one is in darkness if people did not see you but you yourself know where you are.Elections are just at the corner.So land owners be warned.
Comment
This unfortunately’s what yaya, clandestinely give/advance, & some few of his followers ASSUME as ‘development’ for community? where yaya’s supposed/presented to be prophetic, all knowing & capable; FORTUNATELY, it won’t take long for most, if not all, to see the truth as it is; signs are GOOD.; INSA ALLAH.
Comment
This’ the reality of day in Gambia under yaya’s greedy-self-aggrandisement, at expense of state, which he confuses to be about himself/person only; a particular example’s the seffoe village kanilai-farm, where part of kitty villagers’ land was annexed by yaya, grabbed along by seffoe side; many family feeding women lost their vegetable garden situation in the wet land; source of livelihood for most peasants in these communities, same as in kaur saloum & other communities. When will yaya jammeh’s wanton greed end???
Now i believe it when some claim that Jammeh's rule is going to cost Gambia very dearly. We have not only lost our basic freedoms, but thanks to his greed for riches,the very soil under our feet is now going to the highest bidders who are not natives and so would not care for the environment much.
All Gambians should be up about this, because not only do we have a very limited land surface, but this could be just the beginning of something very serious for a country that depends so much on agriculture.
These Asian Investors are nothing but leeches who would suck us dry and still never satisfy our need for food security.
As this Al Jazeera Video report shows, we are once again becoming victims of a new trend of being used, abused and refused. http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2009/11/200911238251720644.html
After degrading their lands with greedy and unsustainable commercial farming, not to mention contaminating their lands and decimating their wildlife with chemical runoffs, Africa has become the new target of greedy Agribusiness companies who see dollar signs all over the fertile land of Africa, and gullible and unaccountable leaders are going to set us back many decades through their collaboration (often through shady contracts) with these companies.
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