The Government of Sierra Leone in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with support from the European Union (EU) held a one-day validation workshop on Sustainable Agrifood Systems Intelligence (SASI) on the implementation plan for the operationalization of Pillar 3 of the Feed Salone Strategy on Aggregation, Processing and Market Linkages. The validation workshop took place on Monday 30th September 2024 at the Family Kingdom.
The objective of the validation is to gather feedback from stakeholders on draft plan towards it’s finalization.
SASI is a joint initiative between the European Union, Food and Agriculture Organization and Agrinatura in support of the transition to sustainable Agrifood Systems.
In her statement, the Deputy Minister 1 of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Theresa Tenneh Dick, on behalf of the Minister disclosed that the systemic approach provides a way to think about and prioritize multiple Agrifood Systems issues and goals such as nutrition and health; food
security; job and livelihoods and sustainable resource management.
“Agrifood Systems does not only involve agriculture, but it requires critical support and coordination of sector inputs in energy, transport, commence and health”, she said.
Dr. Dick reiterated that the Feed Salone programme will be aligned to this agenda moving forward with the following priority components and strategic interventions towards rice self sufficiency; livestock development to increase nutrition intake; crop diversification; and sustainable forest and biodiversity in support of the natural resource management.
She disclosed that the Ministry has established Pillar 3 that has provided greater opportunity for private sector collaboration and investment in the agriculture sector. The specific aims of the strategic document, she said are to stimulate large-scale investors’ interest in mechanized commercial-grade agriculture across the value chains, especially rice; and to promote collaboration between large-scale investors, medium
and small holders.
She re-affirmed the Ministry’s commitment to the process and congratulate the EU, FAO and other development partners for the strategic partnership in transforming the Agrifood Systems in a sustainable way.
The Minister of State, Food Systems Pathways Convenor, Office of the Vice President, Manty Tarawalie, described Food Systems as the interconnected systems, and process that influence nutrition, food, health, community development and agriculture.
She said food systems includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population including farming, livestock, harvesting, transportation, road network, marketing, consumption, distribution and disposal of food and good-related items. “Food Systems are complex entities that affect diets, human health and a range of other outcomes including economic growth, national resources, environmental resiliency and sociocultural factors”, she said.
The Minister of State noted that food systems are vulnerable to ongoing climate and enviro
nmental changes as well as economic shocks that threaten their sustainability.
Madam Tarawalie stated that in Sierra Leone, as a result of the global economic crisis resulting from the wars and the global pandemic, and the ongoing climate change, 82% of the population are food insecure, adding that among these households, 18% are severely food insecure, which is an improvement from the last assessment.
Source: Sierra Leone News Agency