BRAC Sierra Leone under the Boosting Agriculture and Food Security Project yesterday launched the Support for Sustainable Agricultural Diversification for Livestock at the Western Area Rural District Council Hall in Waterloo.
The project, according to the District Project Coordinator, BRAC Sierra Leone, Malike Jalloh, is intended to improve food security and increasing income for smallholder farmers, mostly youths and women through sustainable livestock production in Sierra Leone.
The project, he added, will cover five districts including Pujehun, Bonthe in the South, Kailahun in the Eastern Region, Western Rural and Koinadugu in the North, and that it will target 4,140 smallholder rural livestock farmers, 60% women and 25% youths.
The project, he further noted, will also include 30 Ward Level Community Animal Health Workers and 233 district and central level wider market actors in the targeted districts.
Launching the Project for the Western Rural District at the Western Area Rural District Council Hall on Monday, 9th December 2019, the Chief Administrator of WARD-C, Aminata Kargbo on behalf of the Chairman, Kasho Joseph Holland Cole, thanked BRAC Sierra Leone and the European Union for providing support to their farmers.
She reiterated the point that her Chairman was very much interested to have officially launched the project but he was not able to do so due to his engagement in another official duty.
The WARD-C Chief Administrator stated that it is their business at Council to provide the much needed services for their people and they are sometimes happy that private organizations are intervening to help make their people happy.
She urged the farmers to look after the animals and always ensure that they are healthy and able to produce more.
The WARD-C Chief Administrator emphasized that the efficient rearing of the animals will take care of the schooling and health needs of their pupils as well as other basic needs.
The BRAC Livestock Support Project will be implemented in York Rural, Waterloo and new communities within the Western Area Rural District Council.
The project will provide farmers with poultry, pigs sheep, duck and diary, while service providers such as Community Livestock Promoters (CLPs) will benefit from pig breeders of previous projects.
Market actors as per the project will provide hatchery, feed mill, feed processor, breeding center, milk processor, Local Association, Butcher etc.
BRAC Sierra Leone is partnering with Njala University College and the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI).
The project is expected to benefit 25,693 families of 4,140 rearers, 488 market actors and an average of 4588 households with a family size of 5.6.
A total of 17,290 livestock are also expected to be reached through market actors and service providers.
The project, according to BRAC, will engage the various implementing districts with the view to train 4140 poor households in rearing of livestock, development of service providers and also strengthening entrepreneurs, Ministry of Agriculture and Local associations, raise nutritional awareness, enhance capacity of state and non-state actors, amongst others.
The project was developed along the background that Agriculture is up to four times more effective than other sectors in reducing poverty.
The five targeted districts were selected against the backdrop that they have a very low livestock rearing households in the country with a percentage of 2.7 % 3.1% and 3.6% respectively.
Credit: BRAC Communications
In Waterloo… BRAC Supports Farmers with Sustainable Livestock
