By: Lansana Fofanah
Making Sierra Leone a food self-sufficient nation has been the utmost desire of His Excellency the President Dr. Julius Maada Bio. In the New Direction Manifesto, the President made it mandatory that every political appointee should engage in farming; a call which has been endorsed by many including the Deputy Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, Ambassador Saffa Woya Rogers.
Over the weekend, Ambassador Rogers and his family together with the media toured his 150 hectares of sorghum and cassava farm, eight fish ponds and ranch of cattle at Wonde Kambawama, Wonde Chiefdom, Bo district.
Under the Tivamya Agricultural Husbandry Project Limited (TAHP), Ambassador Rogers and his family started off with six sheep and five goats, but within this short period, the ranch now has over fifty sheep, forty goats, eighty chickens which has brought a great means of livelihood to the community.
Addressing a cheering crowd, Ambassador Rogers commended the people of Wonde Kambawama for seeing the project as their own.
He said that President Bio was right when he said that every political appointee should have a farm as that is the only way Sierra Leoneans can be able to feed themselves. He said that they decided to do sorghum farming in order to empower the people with seedlings and cash to do rice farming which is their main practice.
“A Chinese man will tell you that their staple food is rice, but that is the least they consider when eating because they have variety of food. What we want to do is to ensure that we eat what we farm as proceeds from this farm will not be sold for profit but to ensure that people within this Chiefdom get enough food to eat. If we all take to farming in our various chiefdoms, the burden of importation will be reduced,” he said.
The Town Chief of Wonde Kambawama, Morie S.B. Karim said that Ambassador Rogers and family have brought livelihood to them as most of the people engaged in their activities are gainfully employed.
“This town was having few cattle here as we used to buy from Bo, Mile 91 during occasions. But with the establishment of this ‘Woreh’ ranch, we have enough animal here and they have been encouraging us to raise domestic animals at home. He assured of his people’s cooperation in securing the investments.
Giving details of the fish ponds, Ms. Sunya Tiiva Rogers, daughter of Mr. Rogers said that they started off with one fish pond which used to be their family heritage, but they decided to increase it to eight in order to be able to meet the demand of fish in the Chiefdom. “I decided to join this family investment because I believe that my mother and father are in the right cause in living up to the expectation of the President. As we are set to do the first harvesting of fish, we will not be selling for profit as this is the people’s farm. We remain grateful to the people of this town for their support and caring towards this investment. We promised to do more the following year,” she assured.
Motivating other women to farm, Mrs. Haja Lilian Bayeh Rogers, wife of Mr. Rogers, said that one does not need to have huge amount of money to farm but the zeal and support from local people. She said that they decided to leave the United States of America to embark on the farming project because that is the only way they could give back to the people and the community.
Silaty Jimmy, Farm Manager said that they have people working in the farm from all parts of the country.
Mr. Tamba, an employee said that he used to find it hard to cater for his family in Freetown but since he was employed in the farm, he now comfortably takes care of his family back home.
