The first ever female President of the National Federation of Farmers Sierra Leone (NFFSL), Madam Yatta Samah, has described farmers as the engine of President Julius Maada Bio’s flagship ‘Feed Salone’ agriculture project.
Speaking at the weekly government press briefing on Tuesday 10th October 2023, in the conference room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madam Samah called on her fellow farmers to step up to the task while urging government to increase financial, logistical, technical and other relevant support to farmers for actualization of the Feed Salone project.
She also asked Sierra Leoneans generally to embrace the President’s brilliant initiative and lend support to it in diverse ways, pointing out that “this is not a one man’s business, everyone should be on board.”
Madam Samah said her organization was poised to ensure that more is done to increase food production across the country, adding that farmers nationwide are seriously engaged in various planting activities but that they need to be supported by the government to increase their yield.
She warned government to be wary of people who pretend to be farmers and collect huge sums of money from government on the pretext of engaging in agriculture. It is such people, she cautioned, that sabotage the efforts of government.
The NFFSL President praised President Bio for prioritizing agriculture this time round, underscoring that “when a country is able to feed itself, it avoids the risk of being fed by strangers who could produce what is not worth eating.”
