A COMMENTARY BY ALIMAMY LAHAI KAMARA
‘Feed Salone is more than just a development programme. It is a generational movement to propel Sierra Leone into an era of agricultural self-reliance, where every man, woman, and child is a witness to and a participant in a flourishing economy marked by food security, job creation, and overall economic prosperity.’ I took this quotation from President Bio’s address at the launch of the Feed Salone programme in October 2023. He appears to be passionate and firm, situating the project right in the heart of Sierra Leoneans, calling them to take ownership and drive a basket that touches upon the livelihood of every man, seeks the welfare of every woman, and supports the well-being of our vivacious children.
The thinking is that Sierra Leone must witness a new era of development that takes along the full participation of the ordinary man as an active participant in the choices he makes that not only shape his livelihood but also determine the social prosperity of the society he resides in.
I do not expect this vision to be a pipedream. It cannot be a white elephant project. It cannot be an empty talk, a waste of time, or a mere campaign promise. A similar agenda was set in 2018 that rolled out free quality education which today has sent over two million children to school, has tackled teenage pregnancy and dropped the prevalence by 33%, has supported over 80% of schools with subsidies, and has enlisted approximately 12,000 new educators. This is what addressing a problem is: you see the result; you hear the talks of progress everywhere; and you can even touch the deliverables, analyze the figures, and interpret the outcomes.
The admirable achievement made at the basic education level cannot be unconnected to the astute leadership demonstrated right at the top by the former minister who drove a ministry where many of its past heads failed simply because they lacked foresight, integrity, and exhibited shared distaste for data to inform interventions. We do not know much about the Feed Salone minister just like we knew initially little about the former MBSSE minister who excelled in performance as we got to know him better in both politics and governance! But we know much about the agriculture ministry that continues to unapologetically showcase the highest rate of sordid performance in terms of meeting its objectives of producing food for Sierra Leone. Former president Kabba initiated the food sufficiency programme encapsulated in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper 2005-2007, and former president Koroma created what was referred to as Tractorization drive aimed at mechanizing farming – all of which failed right under the glaring watch of an agriculture ministry that exceled itself only in project design and in articulating theories and setting benchmarks for alleviating hunger in the North, where the bolis in Makeni yielded bountiful expanse of elephant grass instead of rice; in Port Loko and Lungi, where our pepper and onions witnessed the use of hoe and shovel for their ploughing; in the South in Pujehun at Toma bom, where the pristine hectares of farmland there, it appears, concealed decades old hunger curse upon our nation for its brazing failure to explore fruits of its fertility; and in the East, where our cocoa and coffee resisted making impact on the lives of locals there for simply being unable, for over eighty years or so, to add value on the produce or simply being unable to transform them into finished goods for export.
Sierra Leone had been food insecure for a very long time since my grandfather was a boy. Poverty levels had been severe, overturning progress in other socio-economic endeavors. Sierra Leone Integrated Household Survey report published in 2018 placed the country’s poverty rate 2018 at 56.8% and food poverty rate at 54.5%. Without a doubt, more than half of the population is trapped in this misery which has now been exacerbated by the catastrophic war in Ukraine that has disrupted the global food chain supply, and the Corona Virus pandemic that has injured buoying economies in the West and battered struggling economies in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. A report published by FAO and partners in 2023 entitled: the State of Food Insecurity and Nutrition in the World states that moderate or severe food insecurity remained unchanged at the global level from 2021 to 2022, with worsening food insecurity levels in Africa, Northern America, and Europe. It indicates that between 691 and 783 million people in the world faced hunger in 2022. This is huge and frightening. And the calls are being made: ‘… if we do not redouble and better target our efforts, our goal of ending hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030 will remain out of reach,’ FAO President and Partners.
At global and sub-regional levels, the calls should be sustained; the collaboration should be maintained; and the partnerships should be built to share experiences, mobilize funds, transfer technology, and direct effort at investing in commercializing agriculture as an alternative to economic development and as a means to support social livelihoods. President Bio understands this. He keeps making these calls even at events unconnected to the subject matter. While addressing the Committee of Ambassadors from the Organisation of Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific States on the sidelines of the Rebranding Africa Forum in Brussels, Belgium, on October 2023, he said: ‘We see agribusiness as a key driver of growth for our country and a critical area of focus for investment. We seek strategic partnerships to harness the full potential of our agricultural sector.’
While the calls are hooted out there; while attention is drawn to agri-scenarios in Sierra Leone; while countries in the world take Sierra Leone seriously more so as it sits on the Security Council as a non-permanent member; on the ground and at the community level, local momentum is engendered. Work is in progress! Feed Salone has sped off: at the presidential level, cabinet has approved the transformational rice value chain policy that should get Sierra Leone rice self-sufficient by 2028, a Chinese grant of 13 million UDS has been signed to support economic and social development, and the Chief Minster has launched a 135 USD million Food Systems Resilience Programme that will directly target one million people by way of creating jobs, building industries, and instituting systems to transform livelihoods and stimulate trade to sustain the very welfare of Sierra Leoneans. This is what Feed Salone is. This is what Sierra Leoneans work towards – an endeavor to alleviate hunger and stimulate trade that will create wealth to allow every man to determine his own destiny and explore his own path of maximizing his own prosperity upon which the home blossoms and the kids flourish and the state survives.
I feel enthralled and, at some point, mesmerized by the meanings the words make as I read portions of his speech on the launch of the Feed Salone project in October in Pujehun, south of Sierra Leone. One quotation buried my face into my hands, glued my heart into the consciousness of patriotism, and strengthened my resolve for unity and harmony of a people whose hospitality transcends our disagreements, whose identity is defined by our Saloness, and whose history characterizes our tolerance, resilience, and shared hope. President Bio said: ‘When we sow seeds under the Feed Salone programme, we will sow seeds of hope. Every grain we consume will tell a story of our soil, toil, and unwavering spirit as a people.’ This is what one country and one people means. People with a common aspiration! People whose past directs their future!
As I conclude, Feed Salone will largely have to be on the shoulders of the Ministry of Information and Civic Education. It will pull them apart; the burden will be huge. Chernor Bah is bracing up. The Minister! I fear for his ‘chubbiness’. He may likely lose it. It will come; it will certainly face him – development communication. The field visits – exhausted, he will be on the road to Kamakwie and to Madina Tonko, driving into Kambia and way up to Kabala, grabbing a nap at Mongor. If he is Maada Bio enough, he will follow the dusty roads leading to Kono and further cross over to Kailahun to go make an assessment of the cash crops there. And when he returns to Freetown to report, at the Foreign Affairs conference hall, the punches, slaps, taps, salutes – in the form of questions, smiles, and laughter – will fly about. I was told he is a social battlefield commander – an effervescent government spokesman. This is what President Bio means by saying ‘We will tell a story of our soil, toil, and unwavering spirit as a people.’ Every man must play his own part to make Feed Salone succeed. This is mine! I remain Alimamy Lahai Kamara!.
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