By Adama Makasuba

Honourable Madi Ceesay, National Assembly member for Serrekunda West has urged the government to work towards stabilising the high cost of basic commodities in the country.

“It is not secret and if they have done something people would have seen it, because the prices are still increasing. The price of rice has increased one can say the government has not done anything in addressing high cost of living. I can say the government has not done anything because the prices are still increasing,” he said.

“What the government should prioritise are many but for now, they should prioritise high food prices in the country. The government should look into ways in how to stabilise high cost of basic commodities.

This is “because if people are hungry, they cannot have good health. Yes, Ukraine war is true, but the problem cannot be centred on that. We have our rice from the Americas and India so that has no direct connection with Ukraine. For me, I cannot attach the high prices of commodities to Russia-Ukraine war,” he argued.

Meanwhile, Honurable Omar Darboe, National Assembly member for Upper Niumi said: “That’s what we are fighting for as a committee and what we recommended to the Ministry (of agriculture). We are hopeful and the Ministry of Agriculture is hopeful, too, that the donor partners will intervene and if they intervene the price will come down.”

But they have other alternatives like engaging the donor partners to see how best they can chip in to make the issue easier for the farmers. And the government is also looking in ways to address the issue.

He said they have not failed because what they supposed to do, they have done it already, explained that there are factors contributing to the exorbitant price of fertilizers which include covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. This is why the price has increased, and what they put in the budget for agriculture, the ministry has already injected that in subsidising the fertilizers.

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