Continuing the interview with Dauda Kamara the Community Affairs Manager from the last edition, he explained about African Lion Agriculture (ALA) based in Moyamba, precisely where Sierra Rutile is mining.
Talking about the Pineapple, he said they are not exporting it because they have a contract with Felix Juice at Newton. He said they have a fixed contract with them as they helped brought the seeds for ALA. All the harvest will be bought by Felix Juice in Newton.
Mr Kamara said notwithstanding the fact that they are selling the pineapple to Felix Juice, he said they are taking a lot of land from the people and the mining company too is taking a lot of land from them, so they don’t want to leave the people idle and ALA won’t be able to employ everybody, neither Sierra Rutile, that is why we are engaging them in agriculture.
He said the reason for the pineapple is to help alleviate the poverty amongst the people because within one or two years it is ready for harvest. “We can’t afford to plant the Oil Palm, Rubber and the rest that takes long to produce when the people need immediate support. So we decided to do the Pineapple to help them.
He said that was the reason why they came with Irina who is the expert of Pineapple. He also averred that when the pineapple is harvested, they will get enough seeds to distribute to the people so they can plant as they will not need vast acres to plant the pineapple. “We will also help them to market the products when they are harvested, so they can be able to live their lives in peace.”
Asking the Community Affairs Manager about the total cost, he said he cannot tell because he doesn’t have the figures, he will have to check with the Finance Manager to get the figures. He said he understands that their last year and this year’s budget are managed by PALA who is the parent company of ALA.
Asking Mr Kamara whether they are planting on land already mined by Sierra Rutile, or not, he said geographically they were planning to utilise the land already mined by Sierra Rutile. He said Rutile is unable to exhaust the rutile on the ground, so they decided to plant on areas that are yet to mine and waiting for them to come when they are ready to mine on the land we have already planted.
He said at that time the people will have enough knowledge of Agriculture and they will work with ALA to rehabilitate the land that has been mined for agriculture. “Agriculture is the secondary issue in that area, but we are working with Sierra Rutile to ensure that both mining and agriculture can go hand in hand with no conflict for the development of the area and the country.”
Mr Kamara said they have done analysis on the soil and the soil is not that good for agriculture, he said for agriculture to be successful, they have to apply enough fertilizer. “The soil analysis that was done says we have very good soil structure but the fertility is very low. So if the people want to do agriculture on their own they will find it very difficult to succeed. That is why we have to help them get better yield by working with them to plant and to help sell the products.”
He said even if the soil is poor, pineapple will survive because it does not rely on its root as it is a four layer plant. This he said the people will plant and harvest yearly with problems.
As we were working through the Oil Palm field, Mr Kamara explained that they have different varieties including Ghana, Nigeria, Bamenda, Tanzania and Lamay. When asked why they don’t have Sierra Leone Oil Palm brand in their fields; he said the laws of Sierra Leone stipulates that no agricultural company should plant seeds already available in the country. Companies should bring improved variety than go to Daru or other areas to get seeds.
Mr Kamara said all the agricultural companies in the country are bringing improved varieties of seeds to start the agriculture. He said the improved variety means better yield and less challenges.
Asking the Manager if they have any link with Malaysia who is the leading country on Oil Palm, He said Costa Rica too has made tremendous effort to be one of the best in the business for over 100 years. “Right now we are seeking an Oil Palm manager from Malaysia to come and help them. “it is because of financial constraint that this manager had not come earlier. We wanted him to be here for a period of three years to train our nationals because we have a host of graduates including myself who have qualified as agriculturists but we don’t have the experience.”
Mr Kamara said last year he was the one managing the agriculture with less experience and he said he made so many mistakes. “I eventually pushed the management to come with an expert to get things done properly and to help us develop our capacity.”
He said they were planting the wrong seedlings and even when they do transplant they fail to do it properly causing lots of the plants to perish.
When asked which chiefdoms they are working, he said they are working in three chiefdoms Imperri, Jong and Upper Banta Chiefdoms. This he said are all mining areas. He said even the other two chiefdoms Lower Banta and Baluwa that they are going to plant are still part of the mining areas.
He said the Ghana variety is doing very well in Sierra Leone and they are considering increasing that variety in the future. He said in Jong area they will plant 800 hectares and 900 hectares in Imperri.
Taking about the Rubber, Mr Kamara said in terms of nutritional requirements, it is not the same as the Oil Palm. “Oil Palm needs more nutritional requirements that Rubber. The problem with rubber it takes long to start harvesting it. If we have to give the people rubber to plant it will take too long for them to yield benefit and presently there is no market for it.”
When asked about what plans they have for Rubber in the future, Mr Kamara averred that they are bringing some Indians to work with them as they have vast experience on it and they are the consultant. “We are working with them to build the infrastructure. Rubber was not a business in Sierra Leone; it is now that these companies have come to invest massively on it. We have heard about the Hainan Rubber Company that has come to invest in Rubber by building the factory, so the market for Rubber is now in the country and we too will be able to sell to them.”
Explaining about the dam, he said it is the first dam that Rutile created to use to process the product. This dam he said is the Mortega Dam which they are using for irrigation purpose. He said the original source of water for Sierra Rutile was River Jong and they created a canal and brought the water to the Mortega dam.
He said it was then they started mining and as they go along, the water is being directed for the mining. He said people were farming around the dam and when they came they had to pay compensation to them so they can start the agriculture.
He concluded that the dam has been very useful to the people as Sierra Rutile has just stocked 15,000 fishes – Tilapia and Cat Fish in the dam to help the villagers get food. He said ALA will be of immense benefit to the people, Sierra Rutile and the country.
By Austin Thomas
Tuesday April 15, 2014