Sierra Leone’s renowned agriculturist and discoverer of the Nerica rice variety, Monty Jones just ended what he termed as “his largest Press Conference in the country” where he, alongside the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, Sam Sesay discussed radical approaches needed to increase the country’s fortune in the agriculture sector.
While (Monty Jones) emphatically commended the inroads the Agriculture Ministry has made so far in the area of smallholder commercialization project, and the overall programmes put in place by the Ministry to promote agriculture, the agriculturist per excellence maintained that Sierra Leone has the land and the enabling environment that will encourage bountiful agricultural productivity and subsequently feed its people.
But he noted, “we are faced with challenges that are militating against the realization of Sierra Leone’s agric potentials”, referring to one of them as “irresistible tendencies of people to change their mindset towards agriculture.”
He admonished that people should not expect government or the Ministry of Agriculture specifically, to solve all their problems. He said people should explore ways of moving from parochial subsistence farming to a farming that would generate income for them to take care of their families.
Mr. Jones recalled the days when Sierra Leone was a net exporter of agric products and its sad degeneration to a net importer of agric products. He said, “People look at opportunities to improve agriculture but do not exploit those opportunities”, simply because, according to him, people are so inundated with the idea that government should do everything for them.
He challenged the possibility in which Sierra Leone would be able to get the 60% of its people out of poverty as stated in the 2007 statistics. He noted that the problem of poverty is an accumulated one, emerging from successive governments. But he confirmed that the government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security has made lots of ground work, implemented programmes that are set to promote agriculture in the near future, as he cited Rwanda and Ghana that have challenged and surpassed the WHO 1,800 calories that is needed by humans every day.
Technically, Mr. Jones also suggested that cassava, which is rich in carbohydrate and most popular in the country, can be blended with wheat (which is one of the most expensive imported products) to make quality bread, depending on the percentage (preferably 10%) of cassava that will be used. He noted that by embarking on such a venture will curtail the maximum importation of wheat product and ultimately save over US$ 5, 000, 000 (five million dollars) every year. He assured that several people will go out of poverty with just 1% increase in agricultural yields.
He said in a bid to foster agriculture and smallholder farmers, a project called Innovative Fund for Agricultural Transformation (IFAT) is arranged to provide means for farmers to access and explore ways of improving on their farming activities, hence promote commercialized farming. He admonished farmers to change their pattern of cultivation and intensify their farming activities. He said rural farmers are the backbone to agricultural growth and the society relies on them greatly to solve the problems leading to poverty.
The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security Sam Sesay earlier before Monty Jones’ statement, commended Mr. Jones for the successes he has made so far in the agriculture sector. He revealed that the learned Agriculturist is categorized, in the Time Magazine, among 100 most influential personalities in the world.
He said Mr. Jones’ discovery of the Nerica rice gave a new face to agriculture with regards its generic quality, short time of growth and its popularity in the African continent. He said his contribution is therefore pivotal in ensuring the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
Minister Sesay who has just published a handout on the challenges and way forward for agricultural development said that considering the incessant increment of the world population to at least seven billion, of which at least one billion is in the African Continent, there is need to improve productivity in a bid to make provision for future survival, as he noted, “there is certainty that the number will increase unimaginably in the coming years.”
He said even with all the strives the Ministry has made over the year, there are still challenges ahead, and that he and his team are constantly braced up to surmount those challenges to ensure the country reclaims it lost glory as an exporter of rice, ginger and other natural resources.
By Poindexter Sama
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