Agric. Minister vows to increase productivity
March 3, 2016 By Ibrahim Tarawallie
The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security has vowed to increase productivity to enhance food self-sufficiency and economic growth in the country.
According to Professor Monty Patrick Jones, agriculture should stimulate growth in all sectors of the economy, adding that increasing productivity would enable farmers to make money.
He opined that farmers should be the richest in the country if they could make good use of the country’s natural resources and change their mindset to becoming business farmers.
He stated that President Koroma wants prosperity for every Sierra Leonean, as well as want them to be eating food produced in the country.
He urged farmers to increase productivity of rice, cassava, potato, beans, cattle, cashew and other cash crops, adding, “The next thing is to increase income by adding value to your produce and be ready to take your goods to the market. Farmers should be made to reap benefit from their land with their own style.”
He said farmers should work towards making Sierra Leone an industrialised nation, which according to him is achievable if they could increase their yield and practice mechanised farming.
“You can get power tillers, not only tractors. When the soil is well tilled and fertiliser added to it, it will increase on the yield. I call on you to change your seed stock every three years to avoid difficulties and try to be part of one of the Agricultural Business Centers (ABCs) so that you can get seeds at a low cost,” he said.
Prof. Jones revealed that 52 selected ABCs will be well equipped to provide effective and efficient services to farmers across the country and that the government was ready to engage youths and women by providing seed money for them to open their own business.