Dr. Henry Musa Kpaka, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, with female farmers on the farm.The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) has launched a $75 million Special Agro-Processing Zone (SAPZ), funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), to boost rice production and agricultural productivity in Sierra Leone.
The program will be implemented in Port Loko and Kambia districts, two of the country’s primary rice-producing regions, and is positioned as a key component of the government’s Feed Salone initiative. During the project’s preparatory phase, MAFS and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted stakeholder consultations to review environmental and social safeguards, ensuring that community input influenced the project design. The feedback gathered during these meetings will be crucial in determining whether the EPA will issue the environmental license required to proceed with implementation.
The SAPZ aims to reduce the country’s reliance on imported food, create jobs, and promote agro-industrial development through investments in milling, storage, marketing, and other value-chain activities. During the consultations, community representatives expressed optimism that the project will create new livelihood opportunities for youth and women while also allowing rice cultivation to be expanded at scale across targeted districts. Once operational, the zone is expected to improve market linkages, increase access to modern agricultural technologies, and address long-standing constraints such as land preparation, seed systems, and input supply.
The SAPZ’s goal is to increase productivity, improve incomes for smallholder farmers, and attract private-sector participation in agro-processing by facilitating aggregation, processing, and distribution. With environmental safeguards being reviewed and stakeholder input incorporated into final plans, the project is getting closer to full-scale implementation, which is a significant step towards Sierra Leone’s long-term goal of rice self-sufficiency.***
