Sierra receives agricultural machinery from China

Government and People’s Republic of China has donated agricultural machinery to Sierra Leone with the aim of boosting efforts to tackle food insecurity in the country through modern farming techniques.

Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio received the machinery and said they will be deployed in Farm Services Centres which will be located at strategic centres that will serve farmers around rice-producing centres.

One Farm Service Centre

The consignment includes 400 Mobile Rice Threshers, 400 Winnowers, 60 Rice Whiteners, 400 Brush Cutters, 500 Rice Transplanters, 100 Chain Saws, 400 Knapsack Manual Sprayers, 200 Repair Tool Kits, 100 Hand Drills, 5 Diesel Generator Sets, 200 Grease Guns and 10 Diesel Welder Sets.

“One Farm Service Centre will be located at Gberay Junction in Port Loko District to serve farmers around 100,000 hectares of the rice bowl of Kambia, Port Loko, Tonkolili, Falaba and Koinadugu Districts in the northern region. Another will be located in Bo to serve 160,000 hectares of arable rice-producing areas of Bo, Bonthe, Pujehun, Moyamba and Tonkolili District,” he said.

President Bio also emphasised that each Farm Service Centre would hold machines, equipment and tools as well as training facility, mechanical workshop, and a storage and administrative block, adding that they would also serve as aggregation centres for seeds, agrochemicals, and fertilisers with resident experts and extension workers.

“So, the idea is for farmers to interact with experts and acquire modern farming techniques, hire machines at least cost, and acquire managerial skills. But more critical is the skills transfer component that will be available on demand to farmers. I expect that it will cover land development and preparation, planting, fertiliser and chemical application, harvesting, processing, repair and maintenance.

“It has, therefore, been my vision that as part of our transformation of the agriculture ecosystem, we must introduce large-scale mechanisation closer to farm sites and make them accessible and affordable for rural farmers eager to expand their small holdings and to support the private sector determined to commercialise their production scales. We are… most grateful that a nation that has acquired rice self-sufficiency associates with our progressive vision by seeding the essential infrastructure of machines,” he concluded.

Minister of Agriculture, Abubakarr Karim, said with the donation of machinery, other resources and technical expertise from the Government and people of China, they were reinforcing mechanisation, one of the main foundations for lasting change in the agriculture sector.

“These donations and support system will strongly contribute to loosening Sierra Leone’s over-dependence on rudimentary forms of agriculture, which, almost without exception, permanently keep our farmers in the poverty trap of subsistence agriculture.