By Binta Jaiteh
Honorable Mai Ahmad Fatty, leader of Gambia Moral Congress (GMC), has said by investing heavily in horticulture and diversify crop production will help in addressing food insecurity and promote better living standards.
According to Honorable Fatty “we must vigorously focus on home grown solutions to build our national self-reliance, by diversifying and optimizing internally generated sources of revenue. To achieve this, we must foremost tackle the most important priority of food and nutritional security. My native District of Western Wuli has the potential to supply the vegetables and meat requirements of the entire URR.”
“Wuli West also has the potential to supply edible oil (cooking oil) and milk (diary) to the entire URR. This would feed into the national food and nutritional security policy. Indeed, we can conquer hunger, raise the income level of our people and substantially mitigate the incidents of poverty. We must invest heavily in horticulture, diversify crop production and severely cut down on food imports to the lowest minimum in less than a decade. We can do so through calculated targeted interventions, facilitated by balanced budget, fighting corruption with all its ramifications, closing loop-holes, eliminating waste and leakages,” he added.
“Effective public finance management will be one of my main preoccupations in parliament, if elected. Enforcement is key, while reigning on greedy business practices to curb unrelenting price hikes of basic consumer goods and foodstuffs, as well as amending the tax code in favour of small-scale Gambian business owners. This should be part of a comprehensive statutory reform program including promulgation of new business and land laws, to accommodate radical shifts in the new international economic environment.
“Food insecurity is largely responsible for domestic house hold debts in many poor communities across the country. We can, and must solve this unacceptable trend. The next Legislature and the Executive must develop constructive working relationship on these and similar issues to fully serve the public interests,” he maintained.