By Mohammed Jallow
The rising cost of food and basic commodities in The Gambia has ceased to be a matter of casual conversation and has become a daily struggle etched on the faces of ordinary citizens. Nowhere is this hardship more visible and more painful than in rural Gambia where farming communities that once fed the nation now find themselves trapped between poverty and inflated prices. This is not merely an economic concern but a moral and social question that demands urgent national reflection and decisive action.
In the villages of Central River Region Upper River Region and parts of the West Coast Region the sound of bargaining in local markets has grown faint. Women who used to return home with full baskets now measure purchases grain by grain. Fathers calculate every dalasi before deciding whether to buy rice, cooking oil, sugar, or fish. Children sense the tension even before they understand the language of economics. Hunger has a way of announcing itself quietly first through reduced meals then through malnutrition and finally through despair.
The irony of this crisis is bitter. The Gambia is a nation with fertile land abundant human capital and a population whose roots are deeply agricultural. Yet rural farmers are increasingly unable to afford the very food they help produce. Imported rice remains the staple of most households and its price continues to rise despite repeated assurances of duty waivers granted to importers. These waivers were meant to cushion the impact of global inflation and reduce prices for consumers. Instead prices have remained stubbornly high and in some cases have even increased.
This raises an uncomfortable but necessary question. Who truly benefits from these duty waivers.
Whether it is the rural farmer, urban worker, market woman, teacher, nurse or the importer, when a government forgoes revenue in the name of public relief and the public feels no relief then accountability becomes unavoidable. Duty waivers without strict monitoring risk becoming subsidies for private profit rather than instruments of social protection.
The rural economy feels this injustice most acutely. Transport costs from urban centers to villages inflate prices further. A bag of rice that may already be expensive in Banjul or Serekunda becomes even more unaffordable by the time it reaches Kuntaur Basse or Fatoto. Cooking oil, onions, sugar and flour follow the same pattern. What begins as an import pricing problem quickly turns into a rural survival crisis.
Farmers who depend on seasonal income are hit from both ends. On one hand the cost of farming inputs such as fertiliser seeds tools and fuel has risen sharply. On the other hand the purchasing power of their income has fallen. Many sell their groundnuts or cereals at low prices during harvest due to lack of storage and market access only to buy food later at inflated prices. This cycle perpetuates poverty and undermines food security.
Civil servants stationed in rural areas face similar pressures. Teachers, nurses, agricultural extension workers and security personnel struggle to make ends meet. Their salaries remain static while prices soar. The result is declining morale and reduced effectiveness in public service delivery. When the rural teacher is hungry education suffers. When the rural nurse is under financial stress health care quality declines. Food prices therefore ripple through every sector of society.
Urban dwellers are not immune to this crisis. Taxi drivers, artisans, traders and informal workers also feel the pinch. However rural communities have fewer coping mechanisms. There are fewer job opportunities limited access to credit and weaker social safety nets. When prices rise rural households have little choice but to reduce consumption skip meals or withdraw children from school to support household income. These are decisions no family should be forced to make.
The argument that global factors alone are responsible is incomplete. While global inflation climate shocks and international supply disruptions play a role domestic policy choices matter significantly. Countries facing similar global pressures have adopted targeted interventions to protect vulnerable populations. The question is not whether the government is powerless but whether it is willing to be bold strategic and transparent.
One of the most pressing concerns is the lack of effective price control and monitoring mechanisms. Duty waivers should come with enforceable conditions. Importers benefiting from tax exemptions must be required to reflect those benefits in retail prices. There should be clear benchmarks transparent pricing formulas and penalties for non compliance. Without enforcement duty waivers become hollow gestures that erode public trust.
Furthermore the government must strengthen the role of consumer protection institutions. Market surveillance should not be an occasional exercise but a sustained operation. Rural markets should receive the same attention as urban ones. Too often enforcement stops at city borders leaving rural consumers exposed to unchecked price manipulation.
Beyond imports the long term solution lies in revitalising domestic food production. Rural Gambia must be repositioned as the backbone of national food security not as a forgotten hinterland. This requires investment in irrigation, mechanisation storage facilities and rural roads. Farmers must be empowered to produce more efficiently store their harvest and access markets at fair prices.
Subsidising fertiliser and seeds is a step but it must be consistent timely and corruption free. Delays in input distribution undermine planting seasons and reduce yields. When farmers miss the rains due to late inputs the entire nation pays the price months later through food shortages and higher prices.
Access to affordable credit is another critical factor. Many rural farmers rely on informal lenders with high interest rates. This traps them in cycles of debt and limits their ability to invest in productivity. Government backed agricultural financing schemes tailored to smallholders could transform rural livelihoods and stabilise food supply.
The private sector also has a role to play. Importers, traders’, transporters and wholesalers are part of the national ecosystem. Profit is legitimate but profiteering at the expense of national welfare is not. Ethical business practices must be encouraged through regulation incentives and public scrutiny. A nation cannot thrive when a few prosper while the many struggle to eat.
Civil society organisations religious leaders and traditional authorities should also lend their voices. Hunger is not a partisan issue. It cuts across political affiliation ethnicity and religion. National dialogue on food prices must be inclusive and grounded in the lived realities of ordinary people. Policies designed in air conditioned offices must be tested against the experiences of rural mothers and farmers.
The media has a responsibility to sustain attention on this issue. Not as sensational headlines but as persistent investigative reporting. Who receives duty waivers? How much revenue is forgone? What are the price movements before and after waivers? Transparency is the foundation of accountability and accountability is the engine of reform.
There is also a generational dimension to this crisis. Young people in rural areas are increasingly disillusioned with agriculture. When farming no longer guarantees food security, dignity or income the youth migrate to cities or attempt dangerous journeys abroad. High food prices therefore contribute indirectly to rural depopulation unemployment and social instability.
Education and skills development must be aligned with agricultural modernisation. Young Gambians should see farming as a viable and respected profession. This requires technology training value chain development and market access. When rural youth can earn decent incomes from agriculture food supply increases and prices stabilise.
Social protection programmes must be expanded and better targeted. Cash transfers food assistance and school feeding programs can cushion the most vulnerable. However these programmes must reach rural areas consistently and without politicisation. Hunger does not wait for election cycles.
Ultimately the measure of governance is not found in speeches or policy documents but in the daily lives of citizens. When a mother in rural Gambia cannot afford rice for her children when a farmer skips meals to save seed for planting when a teacher borrows money to buy cooking oil governance has failed in its most basic duty.
This is not a call for despair but for action. The challenges are serious but not insurmountable. With political will transparent policies and inclusive dialogue The Gambia can reverse this trend. Food affordability must be elevated to a national priority equal to infrastructure security and diplomacy.
The government must listen not defensively but sincerely. Rural voices matter. Their struggles are not statistics but human stories. Addressing rising food prices is not charity but justice. It is an investment in national stability social cohesion and future prosperity.
History will judge this moment by how leaders responded to the quiet crisis unfolding in villages and markets. Will duty waivers remain paper promises or become real relief. Will rural Gambia continue to bear the heaviest burden or become the cornerstone of national renewal?
The answer lies in choices made today. Hunger is not inevitable. It is the result of systems and systems can be changed. The time to act is now before empty bowls become a permanent symbol of missed opportunity and broken trust.
