By: Mohamed Dauda Kamara
Government through the line Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has on Tuesday 14 May officially handed over farming tools and modern mechanized agricultural equipment worth huge amount of money to the Sierra Leone Farmers Federation at a presentation ceremony held in Freetown.
The capacitating plan for farmers, championed by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Henry Kpaka is aimed boosting agricultural productivity in Sierra Leone.
The tools and equipment are also expected to be widely distributed among farmers across the country.
Officially handling over the modern equipment to the president of SLFF, Madam Yatta Sama, reiterated government’s continued commitment in achieving the ‘Feed Salone’ initiative asserting that they are developing the country’s agricultural sector, which has been grappling with numerous challenges over the years. “We now have modern tools to feed ourselves and earn income from farming,” he said.
With support from both the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of Sierra Leone Dr Kpaka relayed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security through the Government of Sierra Leone has been able to purchase these cutting-edge farming machines for farmers across the country.
He stressed that some of the farm equipment, like the rice mills, trans-planters, state-of-the-earth-art landing crafts, fertilizer applicators, will be used in riverine areas.
The president of SLFF, Madam Yatta Sama, expressed delight for the farm equipment, adding that the equipment will make farming more sustainable, profitable, and modern, thereby expand the country’s agricultural productivity.
In her statement, she recounted the constraints farmers go through in using crude tools to cultivate about 50 hectares of land, which often lowers their productivity.
However, she was quite certain that with the distribution of the modern farm equipment, there will be a massive improvement in the agriculture.
Recently, the Minister signed a strategic partnership with OCP Africa Fertilizer company in a bid to help support the ‘Feed Salone’ project, through increased productivity, improved market linkages, and a reduced post-harvest losses.
In the just-concluded national soil mapping in over 40 years, the partnership, according the Minister, would also develop a “digital decision-making system for soil health management.”
