By Alpha Abu
Tractors and other farming implements are being moved to three sites in Kambia and Bonthe districts to kick-start the largest scale rice farming project in many years, aimed at lessening Sierra Leone’s reliance on the importation of rice – the country’s staple food.
The co-ordinator of the Rice Value Chain Project (RVCP) in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Abdulai Bun-Wai told Politico that 50 tractors, harvesters and other heavy machinery were headed for Samu and Mambolo in Kambia, and Tomabum in Bonthe for the commencement of the $34.12 million project that will engage some 7,000 farmers and private companies to plant, cultivate and process rice for local consumption.
Bun-Wai said the two districts chosen were the most viable areas for rice production as the rivers Sewa and Wanjei along Bonthe and Scarcies in Kambia contributed in making those places favourable for that type of farming.
“These two districts have the best advantage in the whole of West Africa for rice production’’, he said. Effective farming for this planting season starts at Tomabum next month whilst full operation will get underway in Samu and Mambolo in March. The produce will be of the highest grade and will serve the immediate domestic market, according to the project coordinator.
The rice farming initiative is funded by the Islamic Development Bank and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA).
Dilating on the level and scope of government control over the project, Bun-Wai said government would have some leverage in line with the financing agreement, but that it’s largely a private sector-led one.
“We will encourage private companies in Sierra Leone to focus on seed rice production. We will be bringing experts from Africa Rice, the largest and most versatile seed experts in Africa for rice, and they are coming into the country very soon to engage the private sector players. They will select them, train and push them to do the job”, the project coordinator explained.
On the production segment of the project he said: “They (Africa Rice) will also identify private sector companies, train them and give them the support to engage small holder farmers and turn them into productive entities for producing paddy rice. Then we would also look for entrepreneurs who will be trained to do rice processing to the quality of imported rice. They will buy the machines and we would support them to go into rice processing”.
People interested in rice marketing will be identified as well in the end to sell the rice after it would have been processed. Bun Wai pointed out that the government’s involvement would be limited to coordinating the project and making the necessary interventions in what is holistically a private business.
He said Sierra Leoneans were turning to imported rice because of the quality and that they as a Ministry had decided to bring in the latest technology to produce rice that would match the quality of the imported grain.
Last week, a select group of farmers from Kambia and Bonthe participated at an inception training and technical launch of the project in Bo, in readiness for its full implementation.
The national requirement for rice in the country is about 1.5 million tonnes per year.
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