By Anthony Vandy
It has been observed that groundnut production and marketing in Sierra Leone is increasingly taking root in the country.
Groundnut is one of the most important grain legumes in Sierra Leone. The area cultivated varies by the ability, financial strength and human labour capability of the farmer who are mostly women at smallholder level. A total estimated land space cultivated so far for groundnut farming as at 2020 farming year was 40,000 hectares; total production was 40,000 tons and the average yield was 1.0 ton per hectare.
Groundnuts is cultivated and consumed across all the districts in Sierra Leone but mainly grown in large scale in Bombali, Kambia, Moyamba and Tonkolili districts even in the grip of Ebola Virus Diseases epidemic in 2014/2015 and even now in COVID 19 pandemic.
Farmers in the above mentioned areas are smallholder farmers and members of the National Federation of Farmers of Sierra Leone (NaFFSL). Men as well as women, explore new and more sustainable forms of groundnut farming, focusing on sustainable commercial agriculture and value addition.
Groundnut food classification is part of our dietary requirements, though not on a daily basis for consumption. Groundnut like cassava is diversely consumed: the fresh pods are boiled and the nuts are widely consumed while the dried nuts are roasted and eaten directly, made into groundnut cakes, or pounded into a paste which is used in preparing various types of soups. However, with the available arable land space coupled with technical and financial capacity, farmers who have the courage to farm can do well even in the face of COVID-19.
Madam Mariama Jusu, 56 years is a widow and former Primary school teacher with 6 children. In a relaxed mood with her daughter she has this to say about the impact of groundnut farming to the livelihood of her family: “I quit the teaching field for groundnut farming….”
“I have no regret for my decision to quit the classroom to dirty my hands with the soil and make appreciable income than dust my hands with chalk for merger sum. The profit realized from groundnut farming per year was more than my four years’ salary as a teacher. Groundnut has a huge profit margin than all the staple food in Sierra Leone,” Mariama Jusu explained the impact of groundnut farming on her family “I can boast of two university graduates, an Engineer and an Accountant. I have a dwelling house and two commercial motor bikes….. I can boast of these physical assets as a result of proceeds from the groundnut farming. Feeding, schooling and medication of my family are covered by the proceeds from the groundnut farm.”
She continued: “It was a hard decision but an interesting one.”
She revealed the secret that led her into groundnut farming: “I took into groundnut farming after planting a single seed of groundnut in my compound and I harvested 25 pods with a total of 50 groundnut seeds out of the one seed I planted.. That profit margin was the turning point from the field of a trained and qualified teacher to a groundnut farmer.”
She added that it is saddened that very little is done in Sierra Leone on adding value chain to most of Sierra Leone agricultural products especially those planted by small holder farmers.
Mariama Jusu highlighted that providing support to small holder farmers will make a huge turn-around of able bodied men who have abandoned farming for commercial motorbike riding. This will trigger mad rush into farming and close the gap of in the unemployment rate.
She mentioned that irrespective of the high profit margin, there are common diseases that affect groundnut cultivation in Sierra Leone including and not limited to rosette disease, pests, insects, rodents and livestock.
Explaining the business between the farmers and other groundnut stakeholders, she revealed that after every harvest the farmers sell their surpluses to NGOs, seed dealers, merchant traders and other farmers. “Groundnut farming is associated with communal activity wherein farmers take turns in helping each other,” she added.
During the rains, most farmers prefer to sell the raw unshelled nuts because drying them is difficult and also this is the period termed as the hunger period. An Extension Worker and some farmers in Bo mentioned that groundnuts that are not sold are placed in sacks, these sacks are then smoked in special huts, the smoke and heat then preserves the groundnuts for about 3 months.
And during the dry season the groundnuts are dried on drying floors provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. It was further revealed that some farmers dry the nuts directly on the concrete floors, providing a perfect medium for debris and micro-organisms that limit the shell life and quality of the groundnuts. Also it was mentioned that after harvesting, value addition is minimal and most of the farmers prefer to sell the unshelled groundnuts at the farm as seeds to seed dealers and as grains to merchant traders because of the following factors; inaccessible roads to the farms and the farmers lack the funds to purchase groundnut shelling equipment from agro –dealers.
Sharing his knowledge from Farmer Field School trainings, Alieu Kamara an Extension worker of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry explained about the knowledge of veteran groundnut farmers. “Groundnut farmers in Sierra Leone are aware that the lower limit for germination of groundnuts is around 18°C. Temperatures between 20 – 30°C result in 95% germination. Optimum germination temperatures are thus between 20 – 30°C with a minimum of 18°C.” he further added.
“Temperature of the water absorbed by the seed is also critical as far as germination is concern. The water temperature is initially low and gradually increases. We also find reduced germination which we are currently experiencing because of the climate change”.
He further revealed that the period of July to the end of September has a long-term average of above 32 mm. At this time moisture in the soil is limited so in order to plant groundnuts in October, about 45 mm of additional water is required.
Explaining the challenges of the weather he mentioned: “Due to the large variation in rainfall patterns from year to year there are some limitations and the probability of sufficient rainfall expected is scary by to the farmers. Therefore, these circumstances have effect on the production and yield”. He also added that sufficient moisture in the soil during the planting time is essential but again, too much rain at harvest, however, can reduce the quality of groundnuts if the crop is left to dry in the field.
Justifying business investment opportunities and to ameliorate several community challenges Alieu Kamara mentioned that supporting farmers with improved groundnut seeds, tools, and training on emerging farming techniques including improved environmental practices to ensure farmers are adequately capacitated in order to produce more than enough for continued cultivation, meet market demand and domestic consumption are all to be considered. This, according to him, will further increase the population of groundnut farmers, strengthen economic empowerment and mitigate unemployment and dependency of community members.
With respect to projective non-improved yield predictions, Alieu Kamara revealed that 10 bushels of seed groundnut will yield an average of 110 bushels per at harvest time (August/September). Therefore if 20 groundnut farming families have planted 10 bushes each there will be a total combined yield of 2,200 bushels, which is equivalent to 110,000 kg of unshelled groundnut.
Therefore, based on the above estimation, each groundnut farmer will reserve enough seeds for the next planting season and will not have to worry about how and where to procure seeds. In addition, each farmer will have a balance of 100 bushels of shelled groundnuts to sell, eat and credit to potential groundnut farmers.
