Sierra Leone, January 2023

NRDS2 Validation Workshop

Background

In Sierra Leone rice is the most important food crop promoted by the government because of the enormous resources committed to the importation of the commodity in the tune of 240 million USD annually. With a per capita consumption of 131kg, Sierra Leone has the highest per capita rice consumption in West Africa and therefore it is a strategic food security crop for the country.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security developed the Sierra Leone Rice Value Chain Development Strategy (SLRVCDS) in 2020 to further serve as the road map towards the development of the rice sector. The CARD Secretariat regarded the document as well written and structured in content but identified some missing gaps that could undermine the achievement of the set goals of attaining rice self-sufficiency by 2028. To this end, the CARD secretariat communicated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and discussed the need for supporting the review of the document to incorporate the aforementioned elements and also to conform to similar documents in the sub region. With the support from JICA and CARD Secretariat, the SLRVCDS was reviewed in November 2021 and renamed NRDS2. The process of validating the document commenced in 2022, however due to conflicting programs in the ministry the validation could not take place immediately and waited until early 2023.

Result of the validation workshop

The validation workshop took place on the 17th January 2023 in the conference hall of Sierra Palms Resort in Freetown with well over 90 participants in attendance including the Minister of Agriculture, Deputy Minister 2, the Permanent Secretary, and the Director General. The development partners present included AfDB, FAO, EU, IFAD, JICA, and WFP.

The keynote address was delivered by the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Dr. Abu Bakar Karim. In his address he pointed out that rice as a commodity plays a key role in maintaining food security in the country. He explained that there is an abundance of arable land and suitable ecologies for rice production in Sierra Leone. He also mentioned that the government was putting in place various measures to support the rice sector development through relevant policies and conducive environment. He concluded by thanking all development partners that have been contributing to the rice sector development. In particular, he mentioned that JICA has supported the government in developing a specific technical package for rice cultivation, especially in inland valley swamps (IVS) under the sustainable rice production project (SRPP).

The technical component of the validation workshop was conducted by dividing the participants into four groups. Each of the group had specific thematic areas for an in-depth review of the NRDS document. The thematic areas included i) increasing rice productivity and production, ii) establishing staple rice processing zones, iii) improving rice marketing, and iv) implementing and coordinating rice self-sufficiency policy. Each group discussed and came up with some areas of improvement to the document. At the end of the group deliberations, there was a peer review at the plenary session, and comments from each group were further discussed. Basically, the NRDS2 document was validated with the condition that the comments are to be fully incorporated by the NRDS focal point before ministerial approval.