Dr Aja Isatou Njie-Saidy, the vice president and secretary of state for Women’s Affairs, has informed the National Assembly that the 500 metric tons of groundnut seeds purchased by the government has been distributed in Western and North Bank Regions.

VP Njie-Saidy, who represented President Jammeh as the secretary of state for Agriculture, made this revelation, while responding to a question posed to her by Momodou LK Sanneh, the minority leader and NAM for Kiang West, on whether groundnut has been purchased from the GGC for farmers.

The vice president told the Assembly that the reason for the selection of the two regions was based on the fact that they were the hardest hit by crop failure, notably in the area of groundnut cultivation, which she attributed to the erratic rainfall experienced during the last cropping season.

Dr Njie-Saidy confirmed that the Department of State for Finance and Economic Affairs purchased the seeds from GGC.

Also responding to a question by the Wuli West NAM, Sidia Jatta, about how much fertilizer is being sold in different regions of the country, VP Njie-Saidy indicated that as of June 16th, 29,940 bags of compound fertilizer (NPK) were dispatched to regional governors with a stock balance of 15,500 bags of NPK in GGC stores at Denton Bridge.

"We have delivered 3,800 bags in Western Region, 8,350 bags in North Bank Region, 6,640 bags in Lower Region, 7,850 bags in Central River, and 3,300 bags in Upper Region," she explained.

Indicating that all avenues are being explored to make production inputs available to farmers on time, the vice president also informed the Assembly that the marketing of agricultural produce is under the purview of the Department of State for Agriculture.