As part of his assignment to monitor the 2009/2010 trade season, this reporter visited the three seccos in Jarra namely Sankuya, Japineh and Bureng in the Lower River Region of the Gambia to find out how they are faring with the trade season.

When this reporter arrived at the Sankuya Secco on Thursday, he discovered that there was no buying of nuts for the day and therefore decided to talk to the farmers as to why there was no buying of nuts there. According to the farmers who spoke to this reporter, they asserted that the failure of buying was caused by the lack of cash at the Secco and not the lack of nuts in the hands of the farmers. According to them, they were disappointed in the way the trade season was operating in terms of cash disbursement. They indicated that their Secco received their last disbursement in the first week of January and that since then there was no cash in their Secco. They concluded by calling on the GGC to help them with cash before their nuts are infested by insects.
Farmers in the Japineh and Bureng Seccos raised similar concerns. They all decried the lack of cash and the distance between the Seccos leading to more suffering in the transportation of their nuts to the buying points. The farmers argued that there should have been more than three Seccos in Jarra to reduce the distance between the villages and Seccos and save farmers from traveling long and tortuous distances to sell their nuts.

Editors Note
The reporter will contact GGC to convey his findings so that they would facilitate redress if it is indeed within their capacity to do so.