Christopher Todd McDougall
The Vice President of Gambia said
“Take it from me that the situation we are faced with is unprecedented…the
majority of the rural population of 550,000 are now exposed to serious risk of
famine…we therefore continue to hope that help will indeed eventually come our
way.” The Gambian government is not
hiding from the truth and is being open about their situation. The 1983 drought caused immense destruction
to food crops. The government put up a
drought relief fund to receive local donations to provide immediate relief to
the farming community. The farmers are
the bread winners of the country and therefore need to stand up for themselves. Due to the drought of 1983 a 50 percent
decrease in food production occurred.
The situation is made worse by the main cash crop groundnuts
failing. The decrease in production
leads to a decline in the farmer’s purchasing power. The government’s hope that help will eventually come their way before
greater havoc is done to the rural communities of Africa. The United States along with other countries
need to come together to all help aid these problems in Africa. We can’t let hundreds of thousands of people
die because of their economic and climate situation.