{"id":1747,"date":"2020-01-16T21:08:44","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T21:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seedsystemsgroup.org\/?p=1747"},"modified":"2020-01-16T21:08:44","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T21:08:44","slug":"sierra-leone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/2020\/01\/16\/sierra-leone\/","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Leone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Located\non the western coast of Africa, Sierra Leone is known for its beautiful, white-sand\nbeaches lining the Freetown Peninsula. Leaving those asides for the time-being,\nI and Dr. Vithal Karoshi from the Cornell\/Sathguru consortium embarked on a\nweeklong visit to learn about the seed systems of the country. We came to learn\nthat Sierra Leone is also enriched with a wide variety of agro-ecologies, including\nforest, savannah, grassland and swamps. The country is blessed with an\nabundance of rivers and adequate rainfall to support all year-round\nagriculture. The country has eight main river systems (the Great Scarcies,\nLittle Scarcies, Rokel, Jong, Sewa, Wanjei, Moa and Mano), typically flowing to\nAtlantic Ocean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benefitting from a warm\nreception for Seed Systems Group\u2019s mission in the country, we met with most of\nthe key agriculture officials aside from the Minister of Agriculture, who was\non other official duties during our visit. However, we did meet with Mr Amara\nSheriff, Director General, Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Jean Kamara, the Director of Crops in the Ministry of Agriculture,\nDr Momoh Turay, Director of the Seed Certification Agency (SLeSCA), Mr\nAiah Thorlie, Director of Agricultural Extension, Mr Mohamed Bahsoon, CEO, Seed\nTech International (a private seed company) and other key officials in the\ngovernment and the research institutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sierra Leone\u2019s\neconomy is predominantly agrarian. Agriculture employs about 70% of the\npopulation. A tour across the countryside gave us the chance to observe farmers\u2019\nfields (small scale), with rice, cassava and groundnuts among other crops. Although\ngreen and well-tended, the crops in these fields were clearly planted with\nlow-yielding, traditional varieties and one could not fail to wonder if this will\nbe enough food for the country\u2019s needs. With these questions in mind, we sought\nto learn more both from the research personnel and the Ministry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agriculture\nin Sierra Leone was once well-developed and there were vibrant research\nfacilities with a lot of private investors in the sector. All this changed for\nthe worse after a civil war ravaged the country from 1991-2002. This was\nevident from many broken-down machines and buildings at Rokupr Agricultural\nResearch Centre (rice research centre) in the western region of the\ncountry.  Since the end of the war, very\nlittle support has been given to agricultural research, and private seed supply\nis yet to take off. As a result, farmers have little or no access to improved\nseed, and research institutions lack the funds and infrastructure required to\noperate effectively. One highly promising exception to this rule is Seed Tech\nInternational, a private seed company which is quickly ramping up operations to\nget improved seed to the farmers and save the situation.  Many like this will be needed to change the\ncurrent status of high dependency on food and seed imports. The country currently\nspends over $700 million on average annually to import food. In 2017, the\ngovernment imported 750 tonnes of rice seed from Nigeria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Seed Tech International agrodealer shop in Freetown, Sierra Leone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However,\nit doesn\u2019t have to be like this. The current government under His Excellency\nthe President, Julius Maada Bio, has developed a national agricultural\ntransformation programme to reduce high import bills for rice and put an end to\nrampant food shortages and malnutrition in rural households. The government is\nalso open to private investors and public private partnerships in all\nagricultural sectors, starting with the seed industry, and yes, there is a huge\nopportunity for Seed System Group in Sierra Leone. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Located on the western coast of Africa, Sierra Leone is known for its beautiful, white-sand beaches lining the Freetown Peninsula. Leaving those asides for the time-being, I and Dr. Vithal Karoshi from the Cornell\/Sathguru consortium embarked on a weeklong visit to learn about the seed systems of the country. We came to learn that Sierra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}