President Adama Barrow announced on Day One of his Meet the People Tour that the government of The Gambia will purchase farmers’ groundnuts at an increased price of D 38,000 per ton. The government’s price per ton last year was D32,000.

President Barrow claims that the price increase is the result of his administration’s decision to inject subsidies into the groundnut trade in order to increase farmers’ income. The groundnut marketing season will begin on December 4th this year.

President Barrow was in the North Bank Region as part of his seventeen-day meet-the-people tour. President Barrow announced this year that the government will buy groundnuts from farmers at a price of D38,000 per ton while meeting with officials and traditional authorities in the North Bank Region, as well as during the first joint district meeting in the Community of Pakau Njogu.

The new groundnuts price represents a D6,000 increase over the price per ton last year, which was D32,000. President Barrow had hinted a few hours earlier that the government had subsidized groundnut prices so that farmers could go home with large sums of money. “We’ve already negotiated a fair price for the groundnuts and farmers. We are subsidizing groundnuts, and we are subsidizing them heavily (nearly 48 percent) “President Barrow elaborated.

Farmers and actors involved in the seasonal groundnut trade met in Jenoi a week ago for an in-depth discussion on the price per tonnage as well as the government’s need to prevent the majority of Gambian groundnuts from being sold in neighboring Senegal, where traders offer better prices.

Meanwhile, President Adama Barrow has assured farmers that they will be paid in cash on the spot during the groundnut marketing season this year.

President Barrow spoke about his tour “It is a constitutional requirement for the president to go out and meet with the people. That is essentially what we intend to do: dialogue with the people while also listening to them and learning about their problems. We will address them and inform them of our future policies. We are ecstatic and bursting with energy. We made a lot of promises during the last meet the people tour, and many of them were kept, while others are still being worked on. I believe we are meeting the needs of the people.”

Barrow will hold eighteen joint community meetings and visit twenty-one development project sites on agriculture, farming, livestock, food processing and storage, rural water supply, education, skills development, roads, and energy and sports infrastructure during the 2023 Meet the People Tour.