Sierra Leone is one country that is blessed with natural resources, which if handled and utilised properly will not only improve its citizen’s livelihood but also transform the country’s economy.
A system of cultivation that employs plots rotation in an effort to preserve soil fertility is the technique largely practiced in the Country as more than three-fifth of the population engaged in agricultural production primarily for domestic market but to some point also for export.
Rice, the main food crop, is widely cultivated on swampland and upland farms. Swamp rice cultivation is concentrated in the lower reaches of river basins, of which the Scarcies is the most important.
Other food crops include millet, peanuts (groundnuts), cassava (manioc), sweet potatoes, and oil palms. Vegetable gardening is important around the major urban centres, where markets are available to farmers. The major cash crops are palm kernels, cocoa, coffee, piassava, and ginger, and production is carried out entirely by small-scale farmers.
Fruits such as mangoes, oranges, pine apples, lemons, grapes, watermelon, banana, among others are very common across the country especially during the rainy season which starts from May to November.
It is no secret that manufacturing is concentrated in Freetown where production is mainly of consumer goods in small factories with less than a 1,000 employees in each company whiles inland industries focused on the processing of agricultural and forest produce such as rice, timber, sugar, and palm oil at a very small scale.
Traditional industries like fish curing and leather work still continue while the government with support from international donor partners is constructing cold rooms for the preservation of fish across the coastal areas.
The government is trying all these measures to see that the country’s economy upgrade to another level. It is also necessary for the government at this point in time to pay some attention in adding value to some of the available fruits like mangoes, oranges, watermelon, grapes, coconuts, pine apple among others that can be found everywhere across the country.
Most of these fruits particularly mangoes and orange will find their way to the dust bin when they flood the market as a result of lack of storage facilities from the areas of cultivation, transportation to the market places.
These can be prevented if there are available enterprises that can add some value to these fruits by transforming them into juice of different flavor which can reduce the level of importation and also increase the savings of the farmers who can now be assured of ready market for their produce.
Similar thing was being done by the Sierra Leone Brewery Limited, which created a very big market for Sorghum farmers. At the initial stage Brewery provided funds for these farmers and after cultivation they will again buy the Sorghum from them, which they use to produce their various beverages.
By so doing they have not only created employment for the farmers but also make great use of the local content by using the locally cultivated Sorghum for manufacture which further contribute to the national economy.
There are many small and medium enterprises that are engaged in some amount of adding values to some of these fruits and cash crops by way of producing gari juices in a very small scale, due to limited funding and in some instance they will have to stop production because of too much taxation and low sales turn out.
If these industries are to improve and contribute towards nation building by creating employment for the youth, which will boost the economy, then the government has a major role to play in ensuring their sustainability.
Loans should be made available to potential local investors who are investing in such areas and the tax levy should be looked into for a particular period, and if possible the government can go into partnership with investors to boosts such areas.
Take for instance; Benni mix, well body gari, yell poultry, magmas sugar company, G Shankerdas and sons, among others are doing extremely well in the local market. It high time people turn some attention in using some of these fruits and cash crop to produce something else other than their traditional usage.
For instance, ‘Making Song,’ a top level watermelon company in Beijing is known the world over for its specialty in cultivating watermelon which was recognized in 2001 by receiving the Guinness world record in cultivating the biggest and most expensive watermelon.
This company was established in 2003 by Song Shaotang, President of Beijing Loosing Watermelon King Science and Technology Development Company, who had been engaged in the research of high quality and high yeild culture technique of advance planting of watermelon.
According to Shaotang, he employed experts in the field of cultivation techniques as well as packaging and storage as a way of ensuring they produced high quality products to meet the market expectations, adding that they further processed the watermelon to standard beverage which is currently dominating the local market and will soon be available for the international market.
He explained that starting such a business was very challenging but with the support and free hand of the Chinese government he was able to achieve his dream, explaining that annually they organize the watermelon festival where prizes are given to potential watermelon farmers who are contributing towards the development of the industry.
According to him, since watermelon is cold and sweet and also attributed to the heart, stomach, and bladder meridians, it has the effect of cleaning summer heart engendering liquid and allaying thirst as well as inducing diuresis ad relieving restlessness.
People should try to be innovative in achieving their goals by transforming some of these fruit to a finish product that can earn them more monies rather than just utilizing them in the traditional ways as usual.
By Alhaji M. Kamara in Beijing
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