By Michael Massaquoi
Despite the huge acreage of arable land and the inroads made by the former administration of President Ernest Bai Koroma to transform the agricultural sector, Sierra Leone continues to be not just a net importer of rice (its staple food) but also the number of people facing severe hunger has increased since Brigadier (Rtd.) Julius Maada Bio became president.
According to the 2020 Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis study, conducted by the World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agricultural Office (FOA), over 4.7 million people are food insecure.
The report states that 57 percent of households were food insecure in 2020 compared to 47 percent in 2019. This shows deterioration in food security in the country under the SLPP led government, which boasted, in its Mid-Term National Development Plan 2019-2023, that its key target is to achieve 90 percent of food self-sufficiency by 2023.
Severe acute malnutrition, according to the WFP/FAO study, increased from 0.6 percent in 2017 to 3.7 percent in 2020. Global acute malnutrition rate of 6.7 percent is also higher compared to the 2.6 percent rate in 2017. In a nutshell, the severity of hunger and food insecurity is deepening across the country.
The report vindicates critics of the Presidential Address to Parliament last month for its lack of depth and seriousness on the agricultural sector. The address itself was a mere 4 paragraphs full of high sounding promises signifying nothing tangible at the moment to the survival of over 4 million Sierra Leoneans who are food insecure.
Although the performance of the agricultural sector, under the past government, left more room for improvement, the SLPP Mid-Term National Development Plan clearly states that between 2013 and 2018, the agricultural sector accounted for 61.1 percent of rural employment. “… contributions were made to food security, as more than 52 agricultural business centers were transformed into financial cooperatives along several crops’ value chain…Progress was also made in improving access to rural financial services. The Apex Bank was established in 2016, with a network of 51 financial services associations and 17 community banks, to help farmers access financing for agricultural activities.”
On the occasion of the official State Opening of Parliament on May 18th, 2021, President Julius Maada Bio told the nation that his government was committed to implementing programmes and activities to boost rice self-sufficiency among others. He told parliamentarians that two major investments to boost rice cultivation in the Rhombe swamps and Torma Bum have already begun.
And on Friday 11th June, 2021, the President officially launched the Regional Rice Value Chain project in Torma Bum, Bonthe District, where he emphasized his government’s commitment to food security, which he described as probably the “most critical pillar” among the human capital development priorities of government.
The project, he said, will directly benefit 7,000 women and youth farmers, along with 35,000 farming families who are growing rice on 35,000 hectares of farmlands in the project locations.
During an inspection tour of 2,000 agricultural implements and 410 tractors for the 2021 planting season, the President said, “there has been constant grumbling about the lack of mechanisation in farming over the years. With these machines, it is now left with us as a country to effectively utilize them to increase agricultural productivity for the years ahead.”
Notwithstanding these efforts and with only less than 2 years to go for the expiration of his firstS term in office, it’s highly doubtful whether President Bio would meet the 2023 timeline of achieving food security for 90 percent of the people of Sierra Leone as promised in the Mid-Term National Development Plan 2019-2023.
I’m saying this because even the price of rice has doubled and the price of cassava has quadrupled since the SLPP took over. This basically means that more people are hungrier today than yesterday. The 2020 Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis study, commissioned by WFP and FAO, essentially failed the President on food security, and this should be taken seriously as we approach the polls in 2023.