After two years of implementing the Boosting Agriculture and Food Security (BAFS) Project in Sierra Leone, One of EU’s BAFS grantees Solidaridad West Africa and its implementing partner, The Cotton Tree Foundation led a delegation from the Government of Sierra Leone Ministry of Agriculture to interact with beneficiaries of the project in the Port Loko district northern Sierra Leone as part of a monitoring exercise by the ministry.
The objective of the meeting was to ascertain the impact of the project on improving the livelihood and food security of beneficiaries through improved agricultural practices such as intercropping.
The delegation visited five cashew farms, which have been supported by the BAFS Project to verify the outputs outlined in reports the ministry received from Solidaridad West Africa in its implementation of the project.
During the visits to the farms, beneficiaries detailed how the project provided a sustainable source of income through the practice of intercropping on hundreds of acres of cashew farms.
Additionally, they detailed how the climate-smart agriculture training they received has helped reduce the incidence of disasters such as bush fires.
Interacting with the farmers, the delegation from the ministry assured beneficiaries of government’s commitment to protecting and improving the livelihood of all farmers and admonished the farmers to take advantage of the support provided by the project to become self-reliant, resilient and independent with sustainable livelihoods.
The BAFS Project Sierra Leone is funded by the European Union in Sierra Leone and seeks to develop a vibrant, competitive and profitable Sierra Leonean cocoa, coffee and cashew economy driven by private supply chain actors within a national regulatory framework and improve farm-level productivity through good agronomic practices to boost farmers’ incomes and livelihoods.
Leave a Reply