By Dadson A. Musa
Feed Salone is the policy project of this government’s second term. It was launched in 2023 and aims to address the burning hunger level in Sierra Leone. The world hunger index ranks Sierra Leone currently 117 out of 127 countries surveyed. But years of slash and burn subsistence farming has shown that we cannot feed ourselves and be able to export. So, it is very clear that we must resort to advance farming practices if we must achieve Feed Salone. And this is where engineers are needed. Especially in this day and age where climate change threatens to wreak havoc on agriculture and our very existence and humans.
The targeted areas where the Feed Salone must take root are there in the rural areas where the roads are bad, electricity is either non-existent or in very short supply. Additionally, irrigation practices for year- round farming to go on in Sierra Leone is a novelty that seems completely lost on our farmers.
“We hope to reduce rice importation every year by 20%,” Dr. Henry Musa Kpaka, Minister of Agriculture said, but this reduction in rice importation can only be achieved if electricity, roads, and tractors are up and running. As it stands at the moment, we do not have enough engineers and relevant equipment to ensure this. And it is all clear that subsistence farming is never the way out of hunger in Sierra Leone. The professional body for engineers in Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone Institution of Engineers (SLIE) with its regulatory body PERC (Professional Engineering Regulatory Council) must be tapped into to ensure food is produced on the scale that will ensure Sierra Leoneans are food secure and farmers can also export thereby bringing them income. Instead of bringing engineers from outside, let’s use and develop homegrown ones. The free quality education, if it syncs well with Feed Salone then we are no longer going to have illiterate farmers which has a multiplier effect on farming. It means those farmers who cannot make it to university or college but have basic literacy and numeracy skills can have agricultural extension skills to maximize farm production.
Also, practicing climate-smart agriculture requires professional engineers. Studying climate patterns and its effects on the crop yield and soil fertility is but necessary. As we are experiencing late rainfall, flooding which leads to erosion of the topsoil and in some cases droughts. Agricultural engineers will also help to advise farmers on practices they should adopt to avoid emitting green gases into the atmosphere which will control the depletion of the ozone layer.
As the population of our country has grown exponentially so has been the demand for food and practicing climate- smart agriculture is another way out of hunger in this country. Our engineers can also ensure farmers adapt and build strong resilience to climate change and most importantly practice sustainable agriculture thereby producing more and getting enough income. The use of new crop varieties that are tolerant to heat and salinity and resistant to floods and droughts. So the reason engineers are needed in this Feed Salone drive need not be overstated.
