Marie Jalloh launched the report
UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, has released its preliminary findings about the Rapid Assessment Report, explaining food security situation in the context of the current Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.
The partnership, which involves the ministry of agriculture and others in the food security sector, said the reports entailed results from a national-wide study that covered three chiefdoms in each of the 13 districts of Sierra Leone.
A total of 702 households were interviewed as well as 351 community leaders, 8 agricultural commodity traders and 39 rural market sites, 26 districts headquarter towns’ markets were surveyed.
FAO’s country representative who presented the report, Dr. Gabriel Rugalema, explained that the findings of the study revealed that the impact of Ebola Virus Disease on food security was not only limited to those areas worst hit by the disease but the nation as a whole.
Dr. Rugalema pointed out that the Ebola outbreak had caused shortage in labor “for weeding, harvesting and other crucial activities due to the death of able-bodied persons”, adding that families were reported to have abandoned their farms and became displaced in areas perceived to be safe from the disease.
He noted that the disruption and closure of periodic markets had caused a hike in prices of commodities in places where they were highly demanded and a reduction of those commodities in places where their supply was in excess.
“The decrease in prices has largely reduced the income of farming households, especially those engaged in both the production and agri-business sub-sectors and that the reduction in production levels and incomes has directly affected food security in the country”, Dr. Rugalema said.
He said that urgent measures were needed to address the current food security gaps in Sierra Leone, adding that the rehabilitation of key agricultural market infrastructures was needed “to ensure quick recovery of the sector”. He noted that women mostly bore the burden because they constituted the greater percentage of persons engaged in the agric-business sector.
Deputy minister of agriculture forestry and food security, Marie Jalloh, described the report as “essential to government and key players in the food security sector as it will be helpful in planning and decision making for appropriate interventions”.
She observed that about 75% of the country’s population depended on agriculture for sustenance, adding that that large part of the population had been severely affected by the Ebola scourge which had claimed over five hundred lives since it broke out in May this year.
She appreciated FAO and partners for the report and pledged the government’s support to minimizing further spread of the virus and to ensure that the country stood on its feet again in terms of agricultural productivity.
(C) Politico 07/10/14
