By Foday Moriba Conteh
President Julius Maada Bio on Thursday the 21 January 2021 conducted an inspection tour of the stores of the Ministry of Agriculture that is housing about 2,410 agricultural implements and 410 tractors for the 2021 planting season.
In the 2018 New Direction Manifesto of the SLPP, the President emphasised that the overall goal of their agricultural policy is to sustain and diversify the production of food, increase investment in agriculture, develop and implement mechanised commercial farming to transform the traditional subsistence agricultural sector.
At the inspection site, East of Freetown, President Bio said his visit is to show that his Government is serious about improving the agricultural sector and providing the enabling environment for farmers to exhibit and discover their true potentials.
“There has been constant grumbling about the lack of mechanisation in farming over the years. With these machines, it is now left for us as a country to effectively unitise them to increase agricultural productivity for the years ahead,” he noted.
The Acting Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, Dr Abubakar Karim, disclosed that the all the 410 tractors and 2,410 farming implements would be distributed across the country by next week to ensure that farmers are ready for the 2021 planting season.
