Agriculture plays a crucial role in the development of national economies. For cash crop like cocoa, there are growing concerns about declining output due mainly to aging and diseased trees as seen in Sierra Leone where yields are becoming increasingly low.
In the bid to overcome this challenge, the Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (AVDP) is supporting smallholder farmers in Sierra Leone to cultivate 6,000 hectares of new cacao plantations by providing the farmers with climate resilient hybrid seeds, agrochemicals and ensuring that they are linked to private sector markets to increase their incomes.
As a result, on June 11, 2020, at the AVDP Head office in BO, the Project signed Memorandum of Agreements (MOAs) with the Agric Engineering, Crops and Extension, Planning, Evaluation, Monitoring and Statistics divisions of the Ministry of Agriculture (MAF) and the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI).
1) The MOA with SLARI is to establish 15 hectares of cocoa seed garden/nursery (10 hectares in Pendembu and 5 hectares in Kpuwabu), east of Sierra Leone.
The clonal seed gardens will serve as sources of planting materials that will be distributed to farmers across the country for the production and replanting of cocoa seedlings.
The AVDP Project Manager, Abdul-Rahman Bob Conteh said that the US$249,329 contract awarded to SLARI will be implemented over a period of one year, adding that based on performance, similar contracts will be concluded in subsequent years to continue the rejuvenation of the clonal seed gardens in Pendembu and Kpuwabu in Kailahun and Kenema districts, respectively.
“Our intention as a project is to help facilitate the revival of the two clonal gardens to ensure the nation stop the importation of planting materials from neighbouring countries in the near future,” he said. Mr Conteh maintained that as part of their obligations, SLARI will engage in mass production of elite cocoa materials through accelerated propagation technology such as budding and pollination of possible crosses with the hope of developing high yielding and pest/disease resistant cocoa varieties for seed garden development and distribution to farmers.
“SLARI will also investigate into the use of bye-products of cocoa pods in making juice wine and black soap,” Conteh noted.
2) The MOAs with the Crops and Extension divisions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) is to support the establishment and operation of cocoa and oil palm Farmer Field School (FFS) to enhance farmers’ knowledge and skills in tree crop production and the supervision of it implementation. This MOA is worth US$327,900.
3) The US$37,975 MOA with Agric Engineering Division of the Ministry is to complement the supervision and technical backstopping of the Inland Valley Swamp rehabilitation/development so that farmers’ yields will be increased.
4) To ensure effective monitoring of the project deliverables, the AVDP is providing US$56,350 to the Planning, Evaluation, Monitoring and Statistics Division (PEMSD) of MAF to ensure that the project M&E system feeds into MAF’s overall system of tracking and reporting results of agricultural interventions in Sierra Leone.
The signing ceremony of the MOA was witnessed by the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Mr Dennis K. Vandi, who also officially commissioned 60 motorbikes valued at US$68,000 to be used by the MAF District Officers to carry out project field activities.
The overall objective of the AVDP is to increase incomes for smallholder farmers through the promotion of agriculture as a business, focusing on project’s four main value chains of Rice, Oil Palm, Cocoa and vegetables to be implemented nationwide. Therefore this support is crucial in advancing the symbiotic relationship between the project, its implementing partners and the farmers in the fight against poverty and enhancing economic growth. The total value of the MOAs is worth US$671,554.
22/6/2020. ISSUE NO.: 7850