By: Mohamed Jalloh
Upon the instruction of President Julius Maada Bio, the Chief Minister Mr. Jacob Jusu saffa and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) Dr. Abubakarr Karim have completed a two working tour of the Sierra Leone Research Institute(SLARI),engaging the research Council Leadership, Executive, Scientists and other staff at the research centres in Rokupr and Njala.
Centre Directors from Kenema and Magbosi were also present at the engagements.
The objectives of the tour for the Chief Minister and the team were to see firsthand the assets of SLARI, research happening in the field, and to engage staff and SLARI leadership on how to resuscitate the institution.
It can be recalled that H.E president Bio recently travelled to Vietnam to learn from his counterpart and see first-hand how the country transformed itself from a net food importer to now the second largest rice exporter in the world.
A key take away for the president from that trip was how critical research is for supporting Agriculture transformation.
The first stop was Rokupr Agricultural Research Centre (RARC).The station has the mandate to coordinate and implement research programmes in the area of cereal crops including the country`s staple rice, Sorghum and maize, digitaria and pearl millet.
In fact, Rokupr has the mandate to lead mangrove rice research in the whole of West Africa.
At its peak days Rokupr produced and released rice varieties (the Roc series) that are still the most popular in the country.
The station has been on the decline for the past several years and in need of urgent action for the government of Sierra Leone and stakeholders.
At Rokupr, the Chief Minister and his team engaged scientist staff and community members to solicit ideas about how to bring Rokupr back to life.
Over the years the station has been a critical part of livelihoods for the community, the resident minister northwest Alpha Khan also joined the chief minister and his team.
At Njala Agricultural Centre (NARC) the chief minister and his team had similar engagements.
Njala has the mandate to coordinate and implement research programmes in the area of root tuber and grain legume crops including cassava, yam, sweet potato, cocoa yam, soy bean, pigeon pea and groundnut.
Centre directors from Kenema and Magbosi that travelled to Njala also gave reports of the situation in their respective centres.
A range of issues were discussed at these engagements to fix the institution, ranging from conditions of service, amenities at the station, retirement age of scientist, capacity of staff, mandate clarification between research stations and the universities, land encroachment, human resource management, the link between research and MAF, GoSL resources to SLARI, and developing a sustainable way to run the institution.
A particular sticking point discussed at these engagements was the strike action by the junior staff of SLARI. The staff has been on strike for a year now with no way forward.
The chief minister engaged the Secretary General of the Union on their demands on how to get them back working.
A big positive outcome of this face to face outcome is that the strike action will be suspended for at least three months as government develops a plan to meet the demands of the staff.
As a way forward, a technical team is now set up to develop an action plan for turning the situation around.
