2016 FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT

 

Thousands of Sierra Leone’s smallholder farmers and by extension 70% of the current labour are extremely poor and hungry because they cannot grow enough food for themselves and their families or make enough money from what they do produce. The current economic downfall brought about by the Ebola Crisis has exacerbated the already prevailing food insecurity and depleted the country’s income generating potential. SOBBA will need a targeted and robust support for its 2016 production to be implemented immediately as so to save smallholder farmers (in the area of its operations) from falling into despair and becoming discouraged about farming their farms for the 2016 season.

 

In our 2016 planting season SOBBA will focus on providing such farmers, especially our contract famers and non-contract farmers, productive, nutritious, and drought-and disease-resistant improved and certified seeds coupled with training them to adapting modern agricultural production practices that will double their yields. Our 2016 projection is to continue cultivating our three crops (maize, cowpea and groundnuts) utilizing 2014 production year acreage (so that we can gradually increase our contract farmer operation). This year we will also add improved varieties of seed rice multiplication (of 50 hectares) because we realize the urgent need for Sierra Leone to speed up the production of its main staple food. Also, SOBBA will embark on the multiplication of tuber crops, i.e. sweet potatoes, cassava sand coco yam, as a “preventive” strategy against our seed farmers consuming their seed yields (which was observed at the height of the EVD crisis when their food and income was very scarce and limited respectively).

 

SOBBA has been approached by Adams Smith International SL to be an integral contributor to their seed multiplication project which was put on hold in 2015. This project which is schedule for commencement in the first quarter of this year will be another development arm of SOBBA’s 2016 multiplication projects. SOBBA is currently in the approval pipeline of been designated as one of the recipients of the 2016 lowland Swampy land reclamation project for small holder farmers being implemented by the government of Sierra Leone with backing from UNDP. This project is aimed at developing the capacity of farmers who will be charged with growing predominantly rice in the swampy areas of arable land in the country with the aim of boosting the food sufficiency of the people of Sierra Leone as well as provide much needed revitalization for the smallholder farming industry. SOBBA aims to ensure that the full benefits of these projects will be cascaded to our contract and community farmers who need these support the most. Also SOBBA will further explore the possibility of providing farming Implement and fertilizers to its farmers (which is a as a result of a UN feasibility study that SOBBA was consulted on in 2015). Lastly, SOBBA will be reaching out to AGRA to restart the Seed Multiplication project which was in the process of commencement when Ebola Struck and led to such projects been postponed. With our four years farming experience with local farmers and with the right investments, we believe that we can deliver innovation and information to enough farmers to increase productivity farmers in and outside our operating areas.

 

SOBBA will increase its agricultural extension staff and services because we intend to do more contract farming operations. The extension staff will provide farmers information regarding what seeds to plant, how to rotate crops to protect their soil, how to get the best prices. From SOBBA’s experience female farmers are more committed to farming and provide more than half of our farm labor. In its 2016 extension programme, SOBBA intends to skew the services toward the women and youth farmer. SOBBA plans to make the women and youth farmers more productive as men, by providing them access to seeds and fertilizer. We also want both male and female to reap the full benefit of modern cultivation methods and innovation. Agricultural Community Development and training will be a primary focus of our 2016 season in line with our principle tenet of SOBBA’s mission. We will be conducting a total of 20 one-day training seminars with in our immediate farming regions which will serve as a re-sensitization program which is a very essential post-Ebola Recovery programme for the devastated farming sector. This will include our annual internal management and production team training meetings, Season Kick-off meetings and training on our farms for our farm hands, the training for our contract farmers at their various locations, and training and interest meetings for other farmers and seed vendors.

 

SOBBA’s operations were seriously affected by the outbreak of Ebola but it is not despaired by these setbacks. Rather the events have heightened our impetus to pursue our mission and vision that agriculture regains its prominence and ensure it as one vital vehicle for economic development and the elimination of hunger, malnutrition and poverty in Sierra Leone by 2020. The disruptive outbreak of Ebola and its unforeseen devastating consequences have given us an enhanced focal resolve to fulfill our vision to meet the development needs of our farmers. We are also determined to improve the socio-economic status of communities in our farming zones and to build a set of core agricultural practices and competences.