By Mabinty M. Kamara in Moyamba
Farmers in Moyamba district, Southern Sierra Leone have commended the Sierra Leone Meteorological Agency and its partners for timely information on the weather conditions to ensure effective planting and improved crop yields.
Speaking to Politico, Mariama Sesay, a crop farmer in Majendu Village in Fakunia Chiefdom, Moyamba district said that the Weekly weather information that was provided by the agency before the planting season commenced guided them on the right time to plant to avoid poor germination that could lead to low yield as a result of the change in the climatic conditions.
“Before now, as soon as we approach the end of April to May we start planting which sometimes brings losses to us because sometimes it will not rain for days after planting our crops but with this project, we are regularly updated on the weather situation until when it was appropriate for us to plant and our crops germinated well. So we are expecting good yield this time round as it happened last year when I planted two bags of groundnut and harvested,” she said.
Sesay added that the project has also introduced them to new plating techniques and access to finances through the Village Savings and Loan Association.
In an interview with Politico, another farmer in the district James Williams emphasized the importance of the weather information to their farming activities, saying that it guides them on their planting.
The initiative is part of a project supported by Irish Aid through Action against Hunger in partnership with the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI) and the Sierra Leone Meteorological Agency which installs weather stations in the district and regularly updates farmers about the daily weather forecasts that inform them on their planting period.
Speaking during monitoring of the impacts of development projects supported by the European Union and its member states, as a result of the development cooperation between the Union and the Government of Sierra Leone through the Bus Tour conducted in May this year, the Head of the Department for the Food Security, Livelihood and Climate Change Lamin Ibrahim Kamara said that a total of 900 farmers were supported by the project through 30 farmer-based organizations in 28 communities in Moyamba district.
Kamara said all this happened under the project dubbed Integrated Action for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, that has both research and livelihood components.
He said through the partnership with the Meteorological agency, the farmers can access weather information in a timely fashion which helped them adapt their farming calendar to the forecasts provided to them. He added that the farmers were also supported with crops that are resistant to drought and pests.
“We brought in inputs that are resilient to climate change. For instance, the groundnut variety was bought from Mali and they can withstand dry spells (A period without rain in the rainy season). The concept that we introduced –intercropping, was a climate- adaptation kind of concept that allows farmers to stay in one location for several planting seasons, without moving to another land. This helps mitigate indiscriminate deforestation. Also, as part of the climate change adaptation, we installed the weather stations through the support of SL-MET for the farmers to access this information, we provided each farmer-based organization with a mobile phone with a weather App installed through which they get information. It also incorporated access to finance through the Village Savings and Loan Association,” he said.
Ibrahim Success Kamara, Head of Media and Information at SL-MET said they are providing weather information to farmers across the country and that they also work with farmers since agriculture is being affected by climate change. He acknowledged the support of the Irish Aid with key infrastructures to help provide weather information to farmers and other players in Mattru Jong and Moyamba.
Kamara noted that they currently have about 10 Agro-meteorological stations across the country, over eight weather stations among others to provide real-time data which he said are yielding good results. He therefore calls for more such partnerships to support the government in getting more weather stations across the country.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (21/06/24)
