02.08.2013 Views

SIERRA LEONE maq 4ª.indd - agrilife - Europa

SIERRA LEONE maq 4ª.indd - agrilife - Europa

SIERRA LEONE maq 4ª.indd - agrilife - Europa

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

3 The Agricultural Sector<br />

60<br />

Figure 17. Average consumption of fertilizers (kg per hectare)<br />

NB: Fertilizer Consumption (Nitrogen, Potash and Phosphate) in kg / Number of hectares of arable land and permanent crops.<br />

Source: FAOSTAT (2011).<br />

farmers have to go into Freetown to buy imported<br />

agrochemicals. Figure 17 illustrates the low<br />

fertilizer consumption level per hectare in Sierra<br />

Leone in comparison with selected countries in<br />

West Africa for the year 2002 shortly after the civil<br />

conflict ended. Under this scenario, Sierra Leone<br />

portrayed the lowest level.<br />

Seeds and planting materials are the most<br />

important input for most farmers, and discussions<br />

show that the unavailability of planting materials at<br />

the right time is the single most frequent complaint<br />

that farmers have (Sesay et al, 2004). The seed<br />

market in Sierra Leone comprises of a formal and<br />

non-formal sector. There are several supply channels<br />

identified in the 2003/04 Sierra Leone Household<br />

Integrated Survey. Table 13 illustrates the importance<br />

of the access to seeds through the private sector<br />

(73.1%) while the access to seeds via aid (i.e. NGO’s)<br />

represents a very minor proportion (1.2%). Access<br />

through governmental services (0.7%) is usually<br />

provided on a cost recovery basis (GoSL, 2005b). The<br />

category under “other” (24.4%) comprises access to<br />

seeds through own stock, exchanges, etc. (ibid).<br />

Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) has<br />

established a Seed Multiplication Project with<br />

assistance from German Technical Cooperation<br />

(GTZ) and a number of donors are supporting<br />

NGO intervention in input markets, in particular<br />

with seed provision, as part of the rehabilitation<br />

effort. Government has been supplying planting<br />

materials at low or, effectively, no price since<br />

the war, as have many NGOs. The challenge is<br />

to phase out free distribution and move towards<br />

local commercial markets for planting materials to<br />

encourage farmers to produce at community level,<br />

and increase the interest of the private sector.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!