By M. Sajo Jallow
Africa-Press – Gambia. Groundnuts came to us as an enslavement and colonial cash crop from the Americas to generate revenue for the master, although there were local varieties like the Bambara groundnut indigenous to the Senegambia area and beyond. Not only people migrated, but so did their tools and crops for food security or profit.
The Portuguese colonialists, who first graced the shores of the Senegambian rivers in the mid-15th century, came in search of wealth but some ended up settling down, the so-called lancados, or localized lansaro. They intermarried with locals, traded in goods and services, and were joined by their Euro-cousins, especially the English, Dutch, French and Spanish. This search under extreme violence, as cited in the Unesco-published General History of Africa, involved not only the export of groundnuts and other products, but also human cargo for enslavement in distant places. Some 22 million Africans were exported by force to Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean and pacific islands, Arab lands and beyond. It was “one of the cruellest mass deportations in the history of mankind,” wrote the late Elder and former head of Unesco, Amadou-Mahtar M’bow, in the preface to Vol. II, p.ix.
Thus, groundnuts started off as another medium of exploitation, not a source of food or income security. Of course, some farmers and traders got rich, whilst the bureaucrats got hooked on to tax revenue, and politicians made promises of salvation yet to come. In some reports, we read about the potential benefits in groundnut farming, processing, and trading, over decades and across regimes. Yet, decline in the sector is evident, while farmers suffer delayed, or unfair payment.
Value-Chain Surplus or Deficit?
In both the Food and Agricultural Organization’s (FAO) study titled Groundnut: Post-harvest Operations, 2002, and Baseedy Bojang’s case-study on the Factors Affecting Groundnut Exports in The Gambia, 2021, it is observed that groundnut production is widespread, varied for its many uses, and in high demand for food and nutrition. The FAO study: “It is rich in oil and protein and has a high energy-value… kernels are used for oil extraction, food and as an ingredient in confectionary products.” p.3. And from Mr. Bojang’s study: It “serves as the base for wide range of products… to make 63 different products. Therefore, investment in… development and sale of value-added products at a premium price.” p.30. Not only this study, but FAO statistics and history have proven that the groundnut sector has been rewarding.
However, there is a significant variation between the producer and world export prices. Even with exceptional low prices sometimes, the built-up reserves from high-price periods are more than adequate for compensation. By the review of FAO data on prices from 1961-2018, over a 57-year period, Mr. Bojang’s study established that the “large difference between the export price and farm gate price prevents farmers from earning high income.” The producer price averaged about 220 US Dollars, compared with an average world export price of about 1,030 US Dollars. pp. 34, 38. That is, a share of about 20 percent, or one-fifth, of the export value going to the farmer toiling in the field; and maybe even less with other deductions or taxes. Thus, resisting exploitation varies like the weather, from a shift to more food crop production, to the diversion of sale to unlicensed traders.
Democracy Deficit?
Why have regimes past and present failed to resolve the groundnut sector crisis? The regimes come and go, through the ballot or the bullet, but the worries of the sector remain, especially those of small farmers and workers. From the census under colonial rule in 1963 to republican rule in 2023, working people have proven resilience in producing cash and food crops. Based on FAO statistics, they cultivated on average 105,000 hectares (ha) with groundnuts, yielding about 116,000 tons, or 1.3 tons per ha. For food crops, like maize (corn), millet, rice, and sorghum, it was an average of about 32,000 ha, yielding about 34,000 tons, or 1.1 tons per ha. Like shifting cultivation, they take to a survival mix of cash and food crops as they deem fit for short-term relief. In 2023, for example, the average cultivated area and tonnage of about 55,000 represented a decline of about 50 percent for groundnuts. And the projected amount for 2025 may be close.
Maybe the additional sources of income outside of the agricultural sector, for the managing elite, have made the votes of the farming community, cast every five or so years, less effective in resolving this crisis. The 1.5 to 2 billion Dalasi being cited for the trading season compares to about 100 billion Dalasi in financial institutions, or about 2 percent; indeed, a democracy deficit for producers in plain figures. The indispensable media and independent studies have echoed this quite clearly.
Cooperative response to development financing
The cooperative credit unions have close to 3 billion Dalasi, with state-owned enterprises, including the ex-Gambia Groundnut Corporation (GGC), having much more at their disposal. That is, in a socio-economy approaching 200 billion Dalasi. It is not what the Bretton Woods Institutions, IMF/World Bank, impose, but what shall be done to end exploitation. The farming community deserves better incentives, instant payment with cash or digital tokens, and an integrated cooperative mode of farm-gate pricing, processing, and trading. That is, the system change whose time has come for own benefits. The fragmented mode of privatization schemes in six decades has failed in Senegambia, due precisely to exploiter benefits at the expense of the producers and processors of groundnuts.
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