By Alpha Abu
The Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security has completed a mapping exercise that identified the Ministry’s assets nationwide for possible use by the private sector in agricultural activities.
The deputy Minister, Sam King Brima made the disclosure on Thursday 18 February 2021 whilst highlighting their activities during the government’s weekly press briefing at the Youyi Ministerial building in Freetown.
The assets mapping included property to accommodate machinery and will help notably in efficient assets distribution and utilisation by the different private sector players in the numerous agricultural sectors that are being rolled out.
He said this was a government Policy Shift initiative designed to get the private sector take the lead and participate meaningfully in the government’s agricultural transformative initiatives that will enhance food self –sufficiency and nutrition security that are in line with President Bio’s human capital development drive.
He said his Ministry, the Bank of Sierra Leone and the Ministry of Finance have collaborated and supported the initiatives including the registration of farmers across the country that is ongoing. He said Agriculture Ministry and Youth Affairs Ministry workers at district level started the registration programme last Monday after testing the registration tool, and are expected to complete the work in four weeks.
The deputy Minister explained that they have solicited the expertise of the National Civil Registration Authority to help provide “unique identifiers’’ that will trace and track distribution of inputs whilst Youth Ministry staff will concentrate on identifying and capturing data of young people engaged in farming and providing guidance in identifying youth farms across the country.
The exercise will also include the collating and verification of the data to ascertain the number of hectares that are or would be under cultivation. Locations would also be provided for the farmers and information about the agro –dealers and agro chemicals across the country, which Brima said will help the government get the correct number and utilisation of inputs across the country.
He disclosed that the data has almost been completed for national asset mapping including its analysis and that a comprehensive report and the proposed next steps were fully underway. This he noted would be useful to the private sector that could use the information to stimulate the rolling out of their agricultural programmes.
The government has embarked on a massive rice production programme that has attracted especially foreign private sector investment.
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