The Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Hon Abubakar Karim has assured smallholder farmers that the Government will scaleup its support in boosting the agriculture sectors in the coming years.

As part of the ministry’s policy shift and project realignment, the Minister and his technical directorate on 13^th September, 2022, concluded a conducted tour of selected operational communities of the Agriculture Value Chain Development Project (AVDP) in the South and Eastern regions of the country to assess the status of implementation.

Prior to meeting with the farmers, the Minister engaged the AVDP management team at its Head Office in Bo to identify possible implementation gaps and map out a way forward in improving the overall performance and quality of support that will produce greater benefits to the farmers.

The Minister noted that currently, AVDP is the biggest agriculture investment portfolio in Sierra Leone. He therefore admonished the project staff to ensure timely supply of improved agricultural inputs and improved varieties to the farmers, provide adequate field extension services, undertake effective monitoring and evaluation of implementation activities, and facilitate the adoption of effective agronomic practices in line with climate smart agriculture.

The AVDP which is a six-year value chain project is part of a 100 million US dollar loan agreement mainly between IFAD and the Government of Sierra Leone to support the cultivation of oil palm, cocoa, inland valley swamp (IVS) rice and the production of bulb onion and vegetables. The project is also supporting the SLARI Clonal Garden in Pendembu to rejuvenate cocoa clonal seeds for future use by farmers so as to prevent seed importations. 

During his face-to-face interaction with the farmers and community stakeholders at the field level the minister encouraged farmers to undertake agriculture as a business. He emphasized that agriculture is a key flagship agenda of the government in ensuring food security and household income. He informed them about a high-level IFAD Executive Board delegation which is expected in the country in November this year to assess the level of IFAD agricultural investment in Sierra Leone over the years and to identify other possible investment opportunities in the agriculture sector.

The farmers on their part appreciated the government and IFAD for their support in boosting the agriculture sector. The farmers also showcase a step-by-step knowledge in basic agronomic practices, Gender Action Learning Systems (GALS) and Financial Action Learning Systems (FALS) acquired through the project’s farmer field school methodology.  

Saffiatu Bockarie, Chairlady, Nongowa Agricultural Business Centre in Kenema noted that the support package provided by the AVDP including the adopted farming techniques have helped the smallholder farmers immensely in increasing their yield. “With the provision of machines, new technology and agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, Farming is now becoming flexible especially for us women”.

The new Project Manager of AVDP, Monica Kwame-Green, commended the ministry for the level of support to the project especially in the areas of coordination and supervision mechanisms put in place by the minister as demonstrated in his periodic field engagements with the project beneficiaries to assess the status of implementation.