By Dadson A. Musa
Rural Youth Development Organization (RYDO) SL on Friday, 22nd March, 2024 at Moryoh Junction in the Bumpeh Chiefdom trained farmers on latest farming techniques, taking into cognizance climate change issues. The training was done in collaboration with Bread and Water for Africa/Christian Relief Service Inc based in the USA where 75 male and female youth farmers were trained and given farming tools.
Chaired by Mrs. Bernadette K. Jackson under the theme “Breaking the Cycle of Hunger”, youths and women were urged to take farming very seriously. The chairperson called on youths who are involved in motorcycle (okada) riding to “rethink and come back home to be farmers which has a safer economic security than okada riding.” The women and youths were entreated to grab the opportunity so that they break the cycle of hunger in Sierra Leone.
Giving an overview and purpose of the project, Joseph Nyoniya Kobba who is the Chief Executive Officer of RYDO said that the “training is part of the empowerment and capacity building of economically active women and youths in farming, business management skills and equipping them with tools.” Mr. J .N. Kobba went on to say that they want to see farmers “moving away from the traditional methods of farming to a more sophisticated method where the yields will be bigger better and profitable.”
He urged the farmers to diversify farming practices and to not only concentrate on rice farming. He noted that farming should be a profitable enterprise and not do it to merely survive, adding that due to the high cost of farming tools which is too much for rural farmers, that is why they provided each farmer group in Bumpeh with watering cans, shovels, cutlasses, hoes, headpans and two bushels of seeds.
The Project Officer, Francis Andrews said that “youths must see the soil as friendly and should be deeply involved in agricultural activities.” The Regent Chief representative, said that “mechanisms farming is the way out of poverty and out of hunger so machines must be made available.”
The section chief representative said that Bumpeh Chiefdom has vast and fertile farm land which government must invest in. Climaxing the occasion, Field Crop Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Kadijatu A. Koroma called on farmers “to change their attitudes and mentality about farming,” while encouraging them to support the Ministry of Agriculture in its food security drive.
Copy right –Printed in the Expo Times News on wednesday, March 27th, 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)
