By Politico staff writer
The Regional Rice Value Chain Project (RRVCP) in its first planting season cultivated 1000 hectares of rice at Tomabum and 500 hectares at both Mambolo and Samu in the south and north of the country, respectively. The Project Coordinator, Abdulai Bun Wai made the disclosure at a meeting of Stakeholders in Bo to discuss plans for the project’s next planting season. It is an ambitious move by the present central government to reduce its overreliance on the importation of rice to the country by private business entities.
According to Bun Wai, donor partners had wanted the first year to be limited to just having the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute and the Seed Multiplication Programme make available breeder seeds before the project got underway.
He said the government instead wanted the planting to commence from the first year and therefore ensured the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Africa Development Bank collaborate through the Sierra Leone Agribusiness and the Rice Value Chain Project to make seeds available for planting in the first year.
He explained how at the start of the project, only the Islamic Development Bank as one of the donor partners, got fully involved, thereby creating numerous challenges. But he disclosed that another donor partner BADEA has now provided the needed funding to enhance the implementation of the project.
Bun Wai described the first year as a learning experience for the project management team and spoke of the readiness to collaborate with farmers and other key figures, having already received agricultural inputs and agrochemicals as they all work to increase the number of cultivated hectares this year.
A news release by the RRVCP Communications and Advocacy Unit, reported the project’s Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Briama Bangura, as saying the planning meeting was for “stakeholders to identify a road map for prudent implementation of the project and compete with other countries that are part of the project in the sub-region”.
Bum Chiefdom Paramount Chief Alex Maada Kainpumu 11, speaking on behalf of the three chiefdoms housing the rice project, called for the involvement of stakeholders during management’s engagement with agribusiness companies, “for better negotiation on how to engage the farmers in the project locations”.
The chief however expressed satisfaction for the inclusion of farmers in the planning stage of the project and highlighted the essence for rice seed varieties to be introduced to locations that suit their ecological needs.
The Director-General of SLARI, Dr. Mathew LS Gboku “commended the project management unit for initiating the bottom-top approach in engaging stakeholders before the commencement of the next planting cycle”.
It has also been revealed that the irrigating of 4000 hectares of farmland would have to be carried out in a bid to increase “the cropping period and eventually enable vegetable production”.
Sierra Leone reportedly spends over $240 million annually on the importation of rice.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (24/01/22)
