By Aaron Bundu Lahai
Dr Juldeh Jalloh, Vice President of Sierra Leone has lamented that Sierra Leone spends about four hundred million United States Dollars to import food into the country, adding that over two hundred million United States Dollars is spent on rice importation alone out of the four hundred million United States Dollars.
The Vice President was speaking on Thursday 20th February, 2020 during the launch of 18 million Euros grant contracts to fifteen entities to boost agriculture and food security in Sierra Leone.
In his keynote address, Vice President Jalloh described the event as an important milestone in the New Direction Government drive for economic diversification; and recalled President Julius Maada Bio’s citing agriculture as a priority of his Government.
Dr. Jalloh further stated three reasons/objectives for Government to prioritize agriculture; which are: food self-sufficiency, support to value chain and employment.
He enlightened the attendees on the Government of Sierra Leone’s commitment to boost agriculture and focus on reducing dependency on food importation with the favorable climatic condition the country has added to abundant rain and water.
The Vice President highlighted support to value chain and encouraged small scale industry owners to grow food with the aim of producing local foods like tomatoes, pineapple sufficient enough to meet the domestic market. He referred to agricultural employment as the third objective of Government’s priority, and described agriculture as the future of job creation. He maintained that agriculture will not only provide jobs for people to become farmers, but would develop the agricultural sector, expand the value chain and expand on food production and processing.
“The Grant to boost agriculture and food security project fits directly into the three overriding objectives. Because it is expected that the Grantis work in the area of food self-sufficiency, expand the value chain and make agriculture a job creation entity,” Dr. Jalloh told the listeners. He encouraged the Grantis to deliver on the intended objectives and result, coordinate with other sectors in the agricultural family with clear ideas and monitor the implementation of the project. The project costs 19.3 million Euro and is funded by the European Union. He added that the grant is part of the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) and European Union’s Boosting Agriculture for Food Security Project (BAFS).
Also speaking in her opening remarks, as Chairman, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Fatmata Mustapha said the initiative clearly fits into their national agricultural transformation plan which has four key priority pillars. She said as a Ministry, the theme of their overall operation this year was increased production and productivity.
On his part, Tom Vens, the EU Ambassador said he is convinced that the new approach could unlock private investment and exploit significant opportunities in the agricultural sector with a specific focus on jobs for the youths. He said what was witnessed were the result of a highly competitive process, in which a total of 67 applications, 15 projects emerged. He noted that it represents the EU and Sierra Leone’s commitment to take their partnership for investment and jobs to the next level.
In his statement, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Dennis Vandi said the Ministry would always provide the requisite enabling environment for the private sector and development that would seek to improve the agriculture sector. He noted that particular attention must always be given to the rural people, whose main source of livelihood depended on farming.
The program was organized at the Miatta Conference Center in Freetown.
