Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Professor Monty Jones has said that after five months in office, he is optimistic that Sierra Leone is on course to achieve Food Security.
He made this statement last weekend in his Youyi Building office celebrating his five months in office and putting modalities in place to achieve great success before the end of the government’s term in 2018.
“Five months in office as the Minister of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security, I have met with farmers in every District, I have made sure that seeds to be distributed to farmers are there on time, I have attracted big private sector companies such as Integrated Solution for Africa (ISA) that will do Poultry with 500,000 to 700,000 chicken at all times and will produce 500,000 eggs every day, grow onions of which we spend $12 million to import annually, corn, cocoa and ground nut will be included too.”
The Minister said another project he has completed in his five months in office is the SEWA Farm Company that will do 20,000 hectares of irrigated rice in Torma Section, Bum Chiefdom (Tormabum), Bonthe District, Lion Mountain Agricultural Company, processing and packaging rice in Bombali, Mountain Lion Agribusiness Company processing and packaging rice in Bo District, Gloden Mill Company along the Lunsar to Makeni high way, West African Rice Company (WARC), Leone Resource.
All of these projects that are working now or will soon start operations is to eradicate the importation of rice that we use $160 million in foreign exchange.”
The Minister averresd that Willem Ellis wants to do 100,000 hectares of irrigated Agricultural activities mainly rice and other crops is also in advanced stage of negotiations.
“In the past, I have built institutions from the ground to excellence such as the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), my interventions made changes in countries such as Rwanda, Tanzania, Ghana and many more, now I am in my Country to create the same positive impact and more that will create jobs, better economic conditions for Sierra Leone and a better and Sustainable living for our farmers.”
Professor Monty Jones said he will not relent and no bad publicity will affect his enthusiasm in developing Agriculture in Sierra Leone. He also averred that before he took the job he knew what he was up against because there are people who do not want to change and there are others who have been benefitting a lot.
Tuesday July 12, 2016
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