Boosting Agriculture for Food Security (BAFS) in Sierra Leone will soon launch a suitability Crop report in order to cut-down on the numerous work loads of farmers coming to the Ministry of Agriculture to ask which district is suitable to grow certain crops across the country.
Project Manager for BAFS, Isaac M. Bangura. Made the announcement and said they have collected 13 samples out of the 15 agricultural districts and the remaining two will be collected by the end of this month. He said they have capacitated three labs, including soil lab at Rokupr, soil lab at Njala University and the soil lab in Moyamba district under Makonde Campus.
The analysis of the report will collect 3,200 soil samples, adding that 0.01% of the samples have been sent to Algeria so as to compare the result that they will be having in Sierra Leone to match with international standards. The whole process he said will be completed in September this year.
Key objectives
The full report of crop suitability will be out and farmers or interested donors will no longer need to go to the Ministry of Agriculture and ask questions as to which district would be suitable or have the best soil for a certain crop to grow as the report would be the best to select the district they might want.
Mr. Bangura said the project has three key objectives-to increase MAFS institutional capacity for formulating food security strategies and sector policies, enhance cashew, cocoa and coffee (CCC) productivity, income generation for smallholders and exports and fostering sustainable agricultural diversification by disseminating farming techniques adapted to climate change so that smallholders have fair market linkages.
He added that under the crop division at the Ministry, they have placed premium on rice among other crops since rice is the staple food for Sierra Leoneans. He added that their organization have sent personnel to Brazil to establish strategies to fight the bio-pesticides, adding that they have also established a bio factory which will develop predators and biological measure which is 99% completed and the remaining 1%will be completed when rain begins for importation of the product from Brazil.
 in Sierra Leone will soon launch a suitability Crop report in order to cut-down){kind=link}