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INTERVENTION ZONES
The interventions and technologies are being deployed in 4 regions from 10 districts in north-west, northern, southern and eastern regions of Sierra Leone. The beneficiary districts are Kambia and Port Loko in north-west region; Bombali and Tonkolili in the northern region; Bo. Moyamba and Pujehun in the southern region and Kenema, Kailahun and Kono in the eastern region. The selection of intervention districts and communities (which was based on major production hubs) was done in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and national partners.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
Multiple dissemination tools were employed to scale out the interventions, namely, training of trainers (ToTs) and end-users, on-farm demonstrations, farm field schools, experiential learning visits, extension leaflets, use of mass media, policy brief, etc.
M & E ACTIVITIES
The Project Management Unit (PMU) is assisting the 4 project zones to implement and monitor field activities in Sierra Leone. The PMU successfully monitored all field demonstrations in all the 4 regions in Sierra Leone.
BASELINE ASSESSMENT OF RICE PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY NEEDS
The study stablished a mapping detailing intervention required to boost rice production and identified the capacity-building needs, including technical, institutional, and material requirements, to mobilize the necessary resources to achieve the project’s objectives.
PROJECT COMMUNICATION PLAN
The Project has developed a communication strategy and plan to guide the project’s outreach and engagement activities. The plan will ensure a systematic and effective approach to communication, and identifies the target audiences, key messages, and communication channels that align with the RICOWAS project. This plan will ensure the communication activities are executed orderly over the project’s lifecycle.
FORMATION OF GRIT
With the assistance from REE/IER, Cornell University team is able to facilitate the activities of the regional technical group (GRIT). Cornell organizes monthly/quarterly zoom meetings and exchange with the GRIT members on topics to improve SRI/CRRP in each country. GRIT members communicate with NEE, National Master Trainers and other national stakeholders about emerging constraints as well as new opportunities/techniques in the implementation of the CRRP practices. This enables new topics emerging from this analysis to be included in RICOWAS’ CRRP Best Practice Collection for beneficiaries.
DEMONSTRATION PLOT OF SRI & CRRP TECHNOLOGIES
An area of 2000 square meter plot was designated for the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) technologies at SLARI technology park planted with both farmers’ local and improved SLARI rice varieties. Yield performances of both the improved and farmers’ local varieties under SRI-CRRP showed significant increases over farmers’ practices. Grain yield of local varieties ranged from 0.8 to 1.3 t/ha under farmer practices and from 2.3 to 3.0 t/ha under SRI-CRRP practices. Whilst under SRI-CRRP, the improved varieties yielded between 4.5 to 5.3 t/ha.
ACCESS TO QUALITY SEED
The Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI) provide access to improved quality seeds for farmers and NGOs in the country.
GENDER EQUITY AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT (GEWE)
The PMU encourages more women participation in FBOs, train in agri-business management and quality rice processing and facilitate linkages to markets, financial institutions for credit of women groups. It ensures fair representation of women in trainings including farmer field schools and field demonstrations. The project will ensure that smallholder farmers both men and women be provided with certified seed for their cropping seasons.
TRAINING OF TRAINERS
The project undertook Training-of-Trainer’s (ToT) on SRI and CRRP practices selected from the 10 districts across the country. Farmers were trained on compost preparation and integrated soil fertility management, quality seed production, swamp development and on the use of threshing equipment to reduce harvest losses.
STEP-DOWN TRAINING OF FARMERS ON SRI AND CRRP
The Local Trainers will further execute step-down training across their communities.
ESTABLISHMENT OF PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS IN SIERRA LEONE
The PMU undertook a stakeholder mapping and field visits to identify the relevant public and private partners, companies and producer cooperatives from the rice production to processing businesses. The exercise identified potential partners, assess their interests, and determine their capacity to contribute to the development of PPPs. The stakeholder mapping exercise identified the following PPPs:
CONCLUSION
Sierra Leone has potential to increase its domestic production of rice to meet the growing demand and achieve its self-sufficiency. The RICOWAS project and partners are collaborating to ensure increased and sustained domestic production of good quality rice which exerts food security, import substitution and savings in foreign exchange. The ongoing project interventions seek to enhance yields, sustainable agriculture, gender equity and women empowerment, and minimize the effect of climate change on agricultural productivity. In general, the integration of SRI, CRRP, and PVS represents a holistic approach to sustainably increase rice yield for food and income security. Currently, rice yield hovers at 2.2 t/ha in Ghana, but most farmers record less than 1 t/ha due to several production challenges relating to seed, access to fertilizer, soil fertility and climate variability. The application of SRI technologies showed yield increase up to 19.5 to 105% over the farmer best practices. Many farm households are expected to befit from the project interventions in the coming years.