By: Aminata Sameena Sesay
Sierra Leone Seed Certification Agency (SLeSCA) in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security (MAFFS) has produced 891 (eight hundred and ninety one) tons of seed rice in 2022, compared to the 150 (one hundred and fifty) tons imported from foreign countries in 2021.
This was disclosed at the Ministry of Information and Communications weekly press briefing on the 27th October, 2022 at Youyi Building in Freetown.
According to the Executive Director of SLeSCA, Dr. Robert Chakanda, the government will not spend huge amount of money to import seeds from foreign countries when it can be produced here. He further said that, if the country would have been depending onseeds from foreign country, it wouldn’t have been sustainable.
He spoke about the establishing and equipping of a national seed testing laboratory at Mile 91, through project support which he said was introduced to achieve international standard laboratory.
Dr. Chakanda also point out that, the agency has set out criteria for issuing and obtaining seed licenses for importers, growers of seed rice and dealers. He further said that, they have drafted out costs for various food categories of the seed value chain, reduced vendor list from 250 to 20 and identified seed growers across the country. He also said that, they will work closely with seed companies to minimize the importation of bad seeds.
He also stated that the agency has established district offices and targeted four regional offices where two posts have already been established. He emphasized that no single grain of seed rice has been introduced this year in the country.
He went on to say that, if vendors continue to import seed rice based on choice, they should realize that the livelihood of Sierra Leoneans will not continue to depend on imported seeds.
He encouraged the private sector and international partners such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Africa Seed Rice involvement in seed production and to work with the government.
SLeSCA Executive Director pointed out that, they met a very weak structure when the agency was established and that chronic importation of seeds including rice seed, proliferation of seed actors especially vendors and non-recognition of players in the seed industry have been a challenge for the agency.
SLeSCA was established to regulate and control all seed activities towards food security.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (31/10/22)
