June 15, 2021
BY MOHAMED M. SESAY
During the launch of the Regional Value Chain Rice project at TormaBum in the Bonthe District, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Dr. Abu Bakarr Karim crowned the first lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone Fatima Maada Bio as the country’s champion of agriculture.
She has being the main catalyst to give the agricultural transformation in the country for sustainability and visibility.
The award is also in recognition of her capability to be a resource mobilizer in-chief nationally and internationally and to contribute to the country’s achievement of food self-sufficiency and nutrition grade.
Further explaining the valuable contribution made by the first lady towards agricultural transformation in the country, Dr. Abu Bakarr Karim disclosed that Madam Fatima Bio is the senior supporter of Sierra Leone farmer in chief which is no other person but His Excellency the president of the Republic of Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio.
He said his ministry is very gratified with the satisfactory and indelible contribution of the first lady towards the agricultural sector in the country.
Dr. Karim added that the Ministry of Agriculture needs radical support from government and international partners but for it to happen sustainably and predictably the country also needs someone who represents 65% of the agricultural sector which are women.
He said the country also needs an ever ready and indefatigable face and voice of agriculture as champion and that person is the First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone.
Dr. Karim described Madam Fatima Maada Bio as the country’s charismatic champion of agriculture.
Reading the citation of the award he said: “Mr. President, permit me to present Her Excellency the first lady Madam Fatima Bio as the champion of agriculture in the republic of Sierra Leone. Madam first lady Fatima Maada Bio, pursuance to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’ s National Agriculture Transformation Plan has been identifying women’s participation in agriculture as one of the main enabler for achieving and sustaining the agricultural transformation we aspired for as a country, in recognition of your role as supporter in chief to the Master farmer in chief of Sierra Leone H.E Maada Bio, and also in recognition of your immense ability to be the main catalyst to give our agricultural transformation sustainability, visibility, and audibility and also in recognition of your capability to be a resource mobilizer in-chief nationally and internationally to enable us achieve food self-sufficiency and food and nutrition security, On this auspicious occasion marking the launch of the Sierra Leone Regional Rice value chain project, I hereby crown you as the country’s agricultural champion,” said Dr. Karim.
Dr. Karim also noted that the Regional Rice Value Chain Development Project is aimed at producing rice particularly, noting that the importance of the crop as a staple food to the country should not be underestimated.
He asserted that the project which entails specific activities across the entire value chain ranging from, quality seeds, research and production on to quality land preparation and production practices, quality agronomic practices and top notch harvesting and post-harvest management.
The minister said he was very heartened by the fact that central to the success of the project is an initiative of his Ministry conceived and now implemented which is the policy shift that include private sector involvement in agriculture. He said one of the interventions in actualizing private sector involvement in agriculture was that in 2020, government bought over four hundred agricultural machineries which have been made available to the private sector in all districts to manage.
Dr. Karim said that the managers of those machineries have supported the Rice Value Chain Project by preparing the land on the project site for cultivation and production for Sierra Leonean small farmers.
He added that the nature of the project site points to the inclusiveness of all the development projects which the government pursues. He reaffirmed that the Regional Rice Value Chain Project is an inclusive project which is co-located in two communities Mambolo and Samu chiefdom in the Kambia District and Torma Bum in the Bonthe District.
He said the project is sensitive to the needs of the country`s advantage in other sectors of the economy as it would also support small and medium scale, youth and women farmers which is in line with the president’s ambition to provide jobs for Sierra Leoneans especially the youth and Women.
Most importantly, Dr. Karim said the project intends to make big impact in the valuable foreign exchange as government would no longer spend huge chunks of money in importing the country’s staple food which is rice.