I picked up two very important comment from the president which i think is the only truth inorder to gain food self sufficiency. 1- for people to go back to the land and cultivate as enough rice,groundnut etc as they possibly can to stop themselves from buying expensive agricultural produce.Even those days when i was in the Gambia till now,i always pay groups back in Baddibu to cultivate a big piece of rice farm for my mother which has been successful every year and the rice last them from one rice season to the other.Now i don't even remember when i last bought a bag of rice.

2-Irrigation-This is very important as the larger part of Gambia only relies on rain fall to cultivate crops like rice etc,but with the provision of the irrigation system nationwide am very positive that looming world food crises that faces us will be faded away and the socall FOOD SELF SUFFICIENCY will become the reality.May Allah help us to see this go through. Thanks, lang UK.

The president's back to the land call sounds more like one of the jokes he is fond of cracking Lang. That works for you right, because you had a land isn`t it? How about those that do not have one or those that live in the city or Towns? Does he himself or any of his ministers, MPs etc feed on rice they cultivated? NO! No disrespect pal but that is not a genuine solution to the crisis we are faced with at the moment.

What Jammeh needs to do is tell people the truth about why our economy is sinking at such a rapid rate and not come up with his dum suggestions as usual. Who is whose fool in the business, will going back to the land bring the prices of goods down, well i certainly do not think so Mr am sorry. Prices of goods are determined by the performance of the economy and the performance of the Dalasi against other foriegn (hard) currencies.

Government need to start taking a more responsible approach to the crisis and stop blagging it as they always do.

The idea that going back to land is dumb as suggested by louis, is preposterous. How could producing one's own food be dumb? A lot of human beings i know believe that the idea is about human dignity and not dumbness. Mr Louis, if you think Indians should produce rice and sell it to you in Gambia for D1000.00, is fine with you so be it. Mr Louis open your eyes, because the high prices are everywhere. That is why people went on violent protests in Haiti, senegal, cameroon, Egypt, Burkina Fasso, etc. Even in the US, Sams club have issued a quota on how much rice you can buy at a time. No heart feelings my brother

I am a sevice man base in the united kingdon i would like to support Mr presedent for his urge to gambian people to get them self to the farms.Is not a insault but is true lets try to go back and develope our land not only rice is the food in the world,special in the gambia we can farm deferent type of food so let do it.many thanks

Lets be realistic, the back to the land call is not meant for all Gambians, it excludes the poeple of kombo north whose land were grapped by government in the name of modernisation. People in kombo north areas were upland rice cultivators ("Tandacco") and were active in groundnut farming and gardening. Where would they do the farming now with Brusubi and Nemasu occupying their farms. Most of those new settlers have their acestral land reserved for such a call to go back to their ancestral land for food production (sufficency) whiles the kombokas are to buy coos,maize and imported rice at an expensive prize. They should come up with a strategy for those whose farmland were transformed to a new settlement. Can you tell me how the call of back to the land would apply to the people of kombo north? its just unfortunate, i wish you understand our problem with land cultivation for food security.

Well mr UK serviceman (Jerejeff), you seem to be missing the point here. What you need to understand is that we do not live in a mainly subsistence soceity these days and therefore the "Back to the land" call is very unlikely to solve the crisis, come on fella lets face it, it`s just not going to work. You see the government have a way of diverting peoples attention from what the real situation is, trying to blame the high prices of goods on people. Maybe i am missing out on something mr UK Serviceman, can you please explain to me how the dum idea of going back to the land is going to address the problem. It does not take the brains of a pilot to know that prices go up because of inflation. We have a problem here because our economy is sinking and what people need to know is the efforts Yaya and the APRC are doing to address it, not 19th century ideas from some sickman's brains.

In principle I do not think that the/any president's call on people to go back to the land and make use of them is a dumb idea. On the contrary, I think it is of inalienable prudence and needs and must be adhered to by everyone where ever possible, ie, if we ever want to overcome the mayhem of hunger in our countries! I think it is a good start and everyone knows a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Having said that, I think it is discouraging to see that many leaders, esp. in Africa, will very easily blame the people of being lazy whenever they grumble. What they (the leaders) don't do is to take a look at themselves and ask how their policies (both local and foreign) might have contributed to those complaints. I think as long as we choose not to be responsible for our actions and aknowledge them, we will go nowhere! Two advise to these leaders:

1.Let the people know that they can disagree with you all they want without fears of incarceration.

2.Integrity! Leadership by example. Show people the respect they ever deserve and stop taking advantage of their relative inexperiences.

It is important and easier to "go back to the land" and work when one is in a peace of mind. BUT peace of mind will never come easy- everyone, both the leaders and the rest of us, has a role to play and must do so. Together as one people there is nothing we cannot achieve, with hard work and discipline involved. We should all be preoccupied in spreading the culture of hardwork in our families, to our friends and neighbours. Let's inspire one another to work hard and lets show how proud we are of those that are working hard without lowering the dignity of those that have not proven something. These values must be ambedded in the fabrics of our societies.

Meanwhile, we are facing a real problem, too big to ignore. There is food crisis and it is hitting hard. I and most of you living abroad are concerned, and maybe, helping out with cash but we are not sure if that can get rid of the pains. We can keep sending all the money we work for, and that's not a bad thing, but we will not be solving these problems. We will only keep it in the waiting and, yes, the problem shall return. The government at home can talk all the talk about tractors here and there but that will not change the reality. The reality is that people don't know how useful they are or can be in being part of the solutions to their country's economic problems. Their human rights are being violated by state secutity men, the same men that are suppose to saveguard their rights. Their elected representatives in the national assembly are not capable of performing real checks on the government and the civil service but instead they are just being turned into mere rubberstamps. Their own media which is the state media are failing to question the authorities so that the people know the answers. When there is a system in place then one should expect it to work. We need to trust our police, our judiciary, our legislative, our media houses. We need to trust our leaders. We need to know that they are working to keep us safe and to create opportunities for us instead of working to keep themselves in authority for ever. We want to be living in an atmosphere where free speech and tolerance are known by everyone and exercised all the time. These are essential for any society to progress.

I can keep looking at the problems we are facing be it leadership or societal or attitudinal. I can choose to be pessimistic about the future of our country by repeatedly summing up all these problems. But I choose to be optimistic about our future simply by excercising hard work and discipline in what ever I find myself doing and by encouraging others to do the same.

What sence does it make spending about seven months with hard labour in the farm and then cannot sell your groundnuts.The government need to tell people why they are not buying the products. Talking without action leads to nowhere. I used to be a farmer i know how hard it is for them now. All what government needs to do is to provide a good market for the farmers and the tools and watch to see what the outcome will be. Gambians are will but the chance has not been given to them. If Senegalis government is providing a good market for their farmers, what is The Gambian government doing sleeping? They should fooling the people.