SIERRA LEONE maq 4ª.indd - agrilife - Europa

ing about increased fish supplies to the
domestic and export market and contribute
to poverty reduction.
Improving rural services:
• Extension services: create a demand-
driven semiautonomous extension system
to take over from the current dysfunctional
government system. This will build on
initiatives such as the present Farmer Field
Schools, to involve a number of different
stakeholders: the private sector, NGOs and
research and training institutes.
• Research system: restructure by bringing
all research programmes under a unified
management structure, the Sierra Leone
Agricultural Research Institute, to develop
and implement a National Collaborative
Agricultural Research Programme. Research
will be primarily adaptive, and respond to
the needs expressed by farmers in the areas
of crop production, livestock, fisheries,
post-harvest technology, natural resource
management and agricultural policy.
• Rural finance: restructure so as to ensure access
by farmers, both men and women, to provide
credit for input use and seasonal credit. Credit
will also be required for equipment purchase,
and credit lines should be organised for
farmer’s association and small-scale farmer
groups, and to encourage the participation
of other private sector investors in various
aspects of the livestock industry. These service
delivery programmes should be developed in
collaboration with farmers.
Rural Infrastructure:
• Roads, this programme will be undertaken
by central and district roads, transportation
and works departments as part of an expected
wider, national intervention to bring the country
up to a recognizable international standard of
provision. Maintenance of all but the major
roads will be the responsibility of district
councils, and it is necessary that suitable funds
are made available for this purpose.
• Irrigation and drainage works rehabilitation,
and handling and storage facilities; it
is recommended that these should be
implemented through districts, chiefdoms and
farmer groups, to be financed mainly by loans,
with a significant beneficiary contribution.
Towards the end of 2009, the GoSL
published The National Sustainable Agriculture
Development Plan (NSADP) which follows
from the second generation PRSP, the Agenda
for Change and the Vision of commercialising
agriculture, forestry, fisheries and livestock
through linking small to large farmers to market
economies (NSADP, 2009). The Plan therefore not
only reorganises precedent efforts and policies
in the agricultural sector but sets four specific
major sub-programmes that have the specific
objective of increasing agriculture sector growth
from 2% to 6% per annum by 2015. As with past
documents, the NSADP is in line with the first
Millennium Development Goal and World Food
Summit targets (NSADP, 2009). The four subprogrammes
include:
• Commercialisation of key commodities
including a small-holder commercialisation
scheme and medium and large farm
producer’s promotion scheme.
• Agriculture infrastructure with focus on
rehabilitation and upgrading of feeder
roads, development of irrigable swamps,
rehabilitation and modernisation of storage
and processing facilities and rehabilitation
and construction of research centres and
MAFFS/MFMR facilities.
• Private sector promotion which will focus
on policies and legislation to encourage
sustainable domestic and international
investments in the agricultural and fisheries
sector.
Rural poverty reduction and food security: The case of smallholders in Sierra Leone
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