By: Nyima Sillah
The Foni Bintang Karanai representative in the legislature said the security crisis at the Gambia/Senegal border has engendered food insecurity in parts of Foni.
“The farming season did not go as expected specifically in the borderline, where some of the people are afraid. They don’t even want to go further to take the risk of sitting at their farms before they get arrested, which is a serious challenge that the people ofthe borderline are facing,” NAM Bakary Badgie told The Voice.
According to the Bintang Karanai NAM, the difficulties that farmers face in accessing their fields have posed challenges to them as they rely on farming to feed their families.
“If farmers don’t have enough space to farm, they will not farm as expected,” NAM Badgie explained.
He pointed out that the instability at the border has made farmers unenthusiastic about tilling the land.
Badgie said the precarious security situation at the border has discouraged farmers from venturing into commercial agriculture this year for fear of losing their produce on a large scale. The farmers, he said, preferred subsistence farming to commercial agriculture to minimize the risks.
“This is truly affecting them and for that being the case, the harvest will seriously decline in those areas. They also have to restrain their animals from entering the other side of the border. It is hard for one to talk about this reality but the situation there is devastating,” NAM Badgie explained.
Meanwhile, Siwol resident Kemo Sanyang said their crops have done well this year but that the security situation has been preventing people from accessing their farms.
“Right now, the people of Foni, especially those who normally farm in the Casamance region, are scared of going to their farms. They will wake up at around 5:00 am to take the dogs to their farms to be their watchmenand in the evenings, they go back to supervise whether the dogs are there. Most of our neighbors don’t want to take their dogs alone unless they go in groups because they fear getting arrested,” Sanyang said.
