By Alusine Fullah

The Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Instituted (SLARI) has on Thursday, 11^th January, 2024 launched the SLARI Act of 2023. The act aims to motivate and transform agricultural research in S/L that will definitely lead to the production of quality agricultural seeds.

Dr. Isata Kamanda, a research scientist at Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute noted that the amendment of Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute is very time. According to her, the first that SLARI that was enacted on 2007 was good, but it actually does not meet certain modern trends in agricultural growth policies. She said: “The old act does not meet with new innovations. So there is a need to introduce a new act that will actually speak to the modern trends of agriculture in our country. It is very timely to enact such an act…”

Talking to press men at this launch, Dr. Isata Kamanda noted further the major improvement that has been exerted in the act. She noted: “One thing that like so much in this new act is the establishment of the new Directorate that has capacitated the institute to sell technologies and then make money for the institute before it was not in the old act…so anything we develop we have now given the power to patent it and sell it so that the institute will make money…”

Dr. Kamanda also highlighted the massive contribution of SLARI in Sierra Leone. Agricultural research has played a major role in the development of these technologies and has made significant contributions to rural development in the past. The impact indicators of the long-term investments in agricultural research may be grouped into three categories that include (i) the productivity impact that focuses on the efficient use of resources; (ii) the livelihood impact which determines whether gains of increased productivity benefit the mass of society; and (iii) the environmental impact which determines whether the gains achieved by the first two impact indicators can be sustained.

In an interview at Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), Dr. Kamanda concluded on the new plan strategy for SLARI. She noted: “We’re now working on developing a new Strategy plan that will last for a period of 10 years…”

The Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI) was established by an Act of parliament in 2007 as a semi-autonomous government agency, as part of the continuing efforts to revive agricultural research. In order to align its activities to the government focus on food security, poverty reduction, employment creation and commercialization of the agricultural sector, SLARI has developed this new Strategic Plan covering the period 2012-2021. The Strategic Plan explores a new paradigm of agriculture as a commercial business where farmers will move from subsistence to earning a decent livelihood from their farming enterprises.