Rice-loving Sierra Leone wants to free itself from imports. But how?

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — 

Rice borders connected the ineffable successful Sierra Leone. Unless a repast includes rice, radical say, you haven't eaten astatine all.

But arsenic prices soar, consumers successful the West African federation are giving up different nutrient to bargain it. That's a large crushed wherefore 83% of the colonisation is nutrient insecure, according to the U.N.'s World Food Program.

In the capital, Freetown, 28-year-old nail technician Anima Mangola dug into atom with stewed cassava leaves. "I'd devour atom 5 times a time if I had maine the money," she said — adjacent arsenic its terms has much than doubled this year.

Not everyone tin support up, and "people are suffering," she said.

Experts blasted soaring prices connected a dense reliance connected imports, which proviso 35% of Sierra Leone's atom and devour up $200 cardinal annually successful overseas currency.

Even though West Africa has a agelong contented of increasing atom and often fantabulous places to bash it, experts said the import dependency is owed to a deficiency of concern successful agriculture, booming colonisation maturation and inexpensive atom imports from Asia.

Sierra Leone's agriculture minister, Henry Kpaka Musa, accused the International Monetary Fund of pressuring Sierra Leone successful the 1980s to halt investing successful agriculture and unfastened its markets to imports arsenic a information for receiving loans.

"We utilized to export rice," Kpaka said successful an interview.

Now helium and President Julius Bio program to bash it again. The authorities has raised implicit $620 cardinal from planetary improvement banks this twelvemonth to enactment towards nutrient self-sufficiency, notably successful rice, though Kpaka estimated the program volition outgo $1.8 cardinal successful all. Experts from the Ivory Coast-based probe halfway Africa Rice person commended the program arsenic "ambitious and forward-looking."

But NGOs and academics pass it volition favour planetary agribusiness and large-scale farms, to the detriment of the nation's 5 cardinal smallholder farms. They constituent to similar, failed attempts astatine nutrient self-sufficiency successful places specified arsenic Burkina Faso and Ghana.

Self-sufficiency challenges and potential

West Africa has an past atom contented dating backmost an estimated 3,500 years. Historian Judith Carney said its farmers were taken arsenic slaves to enactment plantations successful the U.S. South, giving commencement to a booming atom economy.

Sierra Leone has the region's champion clime and onshore for increasing rice, with abundant yearly rainfall successful coastal regions.

But Kpaka, the minister, highlighted obstacles to atom self-sufficiency: mediocre roads to link rice-growing areas with markets, unreliable energy for processing, clime alteration and mediocre entree to finance.

With the fiscal backing from improvement banks, helium has approved plans to amended roads to the country's 3 main "rice bowls," make ample areas of irrigated onshore and supply fertilizers, seeds and pesticides to smallholder farms.

"The program starts with the infrastructure to pull the backstage assemblage to come," helium said. He has promoted the program to unspecified planetary investors, offering them thousands of hectares of irrigated land.

But immoderate judge smallholders, who marque up 70% of the country's colonisation of 8 million, volition beryllium an afterthought.

The presumption from the field

Aboubacar Kowa, a farming person successful Bo district, gathered others to sermon their atom challenges, which besides included entree to onshore and a deficiency of storage, grooming and processing capacity.

They were agreed successful their deficiency of optimism astir authorities help. They've heard these ambitious plans before.

"We don't get enactment from the government," said 1 smallholder and colony chief, Eric Amara Manyeh.

The astir communal interest was the deficiency of labour to make irrigated fields. Eliminating vegetation and digging channels is laborious, and an exodus of young radical to municipality areas means farmers person to employment laborers — a outgo retired of scope for many.

Although unemployment is precocious successful towns, Manyeh said young radical similar easier jobs specified arsenic driving motorbike taxis.

Some farmers person formed collectives to stock labor, but mediocre tools dilatory progress. In 1 government-backed task successful Bo, digging 60 hectares of channels took 3 months by 82 people.

A cautionary tale

Sierra Leone's extremity to get chemic fertilizer, seeds and pesticides into the hands of smallholders is meant to replicate the Green Revolution successful Asia, which accrued atom accumulation by implicit 100% successful 2 decades.

But Klara Fischer, a agrarian improvement prof astatine the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences specializing successful sub-Saharan Africa, warned that the attack exposes farmers to agribusiness giants specified arsenic Bayer Crop Science and Syngenta.

An inaugural called A Green Revolution for Africa. backed by the Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and others, has spent implicit $1 cardinal since 2006 to summation entree to fertilizers and seeds for smallholders, but its ain valuation successful 2022 said it hasn't accrued nutrient security. The inaugural is supporting Sierra Leone's efforts.

One caller appraisal by the German improvement ministry successful Ghana and Burkina Faso recovered nary grounds that providing fertilizer and seeds accrued output oregon nett for smallholders and recovered that 41% of atom farmers struggled to wage disconnected their debts.

"These fertilizer and effect packages are entangled with backstage interests," Fischer said. She besides highlighted differences betwixt Asia successful the 1970s and the existent concern successful Africa. One is the inexpensive and disposable household labour successful Asia compared to the agrarian exodus successful Sierra Leone.

Kpaka, a erstwhile worker successful the Gates Foundation's cultivation department, acknowledged concerns but was convinced his program has the missing constituent to unlock growth: the captious infrastructure to assistance farmers process and merchantability their rice, incentivizing them to turn more.

"If we don't marque the road, (farmers) volition everlastingly stay subsistence," helium said.

A antithetic way

Others judge that Sierra Leone should walk its backing connected measures that empower smallholder farms alternatively than large business.

Joseph Randall, manager of an biology NGO successful Sierra Leone, Green Scenery, said the authorities should enactment sustainable practices specified arsenic integrated compost alternatively of becoming babelike connected imported chemic fertilizer, usually from Europe oregon North America, which contributes heavy to planetary warming.

Randall opposes the organisation of modern seeds, adjacent though they are higher yielding. The hybrid varieties of atom can't beryllium saved and replanted each twelvemonth due to the fact that they are bred by agribusinesses and person patents.

Meanwhile, successful Manyeh's village, thunder echoed done the chief's atom fields. He pointed to a swamp that mightiness beryllium cultivated arsenic portion of the self-sufficiency goal.

"The willingness is there, the imaginable is there," helium said. But helium knows it takes much than imaginable to provender a nation.