November 2, 2021
Albert Baron Ansu
Haja Lilian B Rogers is wife of Deputy Ambassador to China, Saffa Wuya Rogers. The couple had since 2018 embraced the vision of the President Bio in investing in food self-sufficiency by cultivating vast hectares of inland valley swamp, upland farming, cassva and fish pond.
From Kambabowama in Bo district, Kpombu and Massahun Kpaka in Pujuehn distrct the group is in the process of having a national outlook in epespecially replicating and upgrading the fish pond as a means of of empowering other women.
In addition to be being a supplier of sorghum to the Sierra Leone Brewery Limited the initiative of Tivamya Limited has attracted the Ministry of Fishery and Food and Agriculture, FAO to appoint Haja Lilian B Rogers as President of the Africa Women Fish Processors and Fish Traders Network.
In an exclusive interview with A-Z Newspaper, Haja Lilian B Rogers said their operations has been restricted in Bo and Pujehun district but this appointment as President of the Afrca Women Fish Processors and Fish Traders Network, (AWFISHNET) means that they have to mainstream the fish farming to other parts of the country, training women in value addition of fish beyond the scale of consumption.
She says with the lessons learnt using ten fish ponds which is currently supplying school feeding programs, supermarkets and market women, Lilian Rogers is of the conviction that fish farming and agriculture in food production and animal husbandry can create wealth and jobs.
She disclosed that when they started there was scarcity of the food varieties now cultivated but the narrative has changed in those communities with glut of locally grown food and the issue of cultivation is even the challenge.