y PEL Koroma
As a distinguished speaker and honoured guest of the 2024 Norman Borlaug International Dialogue organised by the World Food Prize Foundation in Iowa, United States of America, Hon. Dr. Henry Musa Kpaka impressed on his audience at the Iowa Event Center during a panel discussion on diplomatic support to alleviate food insecurity, mostly triggered by conflict and climate change, that Sierra Leone is making frantic efforts to build partnerships for the transformation of the food system in the country.
Dr Kpaka brought to the attention of his audience that a Sierra Leonean, Professor Monty Jones, had won the prestigious World Food Prize. The prize seeks to elevate innovations and inspire actions to increase the quantity, quality, and availability of food for all, with the support of agricultural scientists and scholars whose work has increased and impacted global food security.
“Solutions are homegrown but need to cross boundaries since certain parts of the world do not have the idea and know-how “, emphasising that African youths are mostly unemployed and need to be unlocked through the transformation of agriculture.
According to Dr Kpaka, the African continent is still yet to tap usefully into the opportunity of free trade, furthering that Sierra Leone is partnering with Organizations in the ECOWAS region, and their declarations have outlined ten concrete areas in designing programs to promote food security.
“In Sierra Leone, the staple food, rice, is imported, costing over $200 million. The Feed Salone project is the flagship of the President, and agriculture is the engine for national growth, thereby creating more jobs for the youths in the country. And in doing so, the government is seeking partnerships to learn from, especially the soil, the type of fertilisers and types of nutrients available”, stressing that working with stakeholders is key for farmers and the private sector to achieve food sufficiency.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security reiterated that achieving food systems transformation requires bilateral agricultural trade with neighbouring countries. With lessons learned, Dr Henry Musa Kpaka said the government is encouraging importers of rice to participate in the rice value chain in the country, where a clear road map was designed and shared with the President. He furthered that it is difficult to keep to ultimatums with the importers and difficult to make hard decisions since the local production or yield is yet to meet the demand of the people.
At the Press Conference in Room 104 of the Event Center, Minister Kpaka mentioned the barriers encountered by stakeholders and other interest groups that are bent on thwarting the efforts to achieve food sufficiency.
Dr. Kpaka amplified the need for the transformation of raw materials that will boost economic growth instead of transferring raw materials that promote high dependency on other countries, further advancing financial policies that will give loans to farmers at a low rate.
In his conclusion, Dr Kpaka argued that value addition should be strengthened, which will allow it to go up the value chain with US buyers and other markets. He said the private sector should be encouraged to build technology and irrigation.
“Credible partners are needed to establish better relationships”, Hon. Kpaka concluded.
On the panel with the Sierra Leone Minister of Agriculture were the Minister of Agriculture of Honduras, Laura Elena Suazo Torres, and Ambassador Kanzo of Tanzania.
