Food and Income for 500 Sierra Leone Farmers

COVID-19 update

Worldwide everyone struggles with the COVID-19 visue. Also in Sierra Leone: although the number of registered cases is relatively low with currently 7674 cases and 125 deaths registered, it still influences daily life.

And a full vaccination has only reached a level of 14% of the 7.5 million inhabitants.

Update from the Field.

In early March this year an extended program of four acres costing a little over six million Leones was proposed by the local Program manager, mr. Momodu Sheku Kamara., following the successful loans recovery from the participating farmers in the previous year 2021.

The proposal was approved by the Board and after providing the additional funds, presently we have 12 acres mixed cropping farming supporting twenty-four farmers.

Farming activities are on going as per schedule. It is a very labor intensive operation as can be seen on the photos of the farm land below, requiring more labour and farmers investment in cash and food in kind. Farmers formed communal labor groups to support these heavy operations manually.

The required inputs of fertilizer and rice seeds were procured timely for the additional farmers, just in time before prices soared due to the recent political instability world wide.

All the 12 acres farms have been simultaneously worked on by the labor groups which comprises of all 24 member farm families who own the 12 acres farm area. The photo on Top of this report gives you an impression of the farmer families, involved.

NEXT STEPS?: Please help us to make the next step forward!

We are still a small team, committed to Seeds for Growth to improve livelihoods in rural Sierra Leone. And soon, Ben will be leaving our team.

Therefore we invite YOU to volunteer for the team.
And…WHY NOT join together? Please bring your friend or network partner(s) along!

Only together we can improve the livelihoods of farmers in rural Sierra Leone?
We ‘d love to have an online chat with you about the options.

Just drop an email to: ben.bolland@bevon.nl or kaprituray@yahoo.com

Thank you for opening this november 2021 newsletter!

A brief COVID-19 update

Worldwide we still struggle with the COVID-19 visue. Although the number of registered cases in Sierra Leone is relatively low with currently 6401 cases and 121 deaths reported, it still dominates daily life. And the vaccination campaign reached only about 302,686 fully vaccinated people, which is 3,87% of the 7.5 million inhabitants.

Seeds for Growth in the malal chiefdom

After our summer 2021 news letter, our program manager, mr M.S. Kamara continued supports a year covering cropping season project for 14 farmer families, based on intercropping of Rice combined with a few other crops like sorghum, benni, cassave and groundnuts.

Since mid september we received positive updates on the rice harvest, and this gives us hope that the final outcome of this full year support for this way of mixed cropping is becoming a success for the farmers. Mid december 2021 we expect to fulfil a final evaluation, and make new plans for the next year.

Of course the COVID-situation has affected the farming situation in a negative way, still the team is expecting reasonable harvest outcomes, thanks to the combined cropping strategy. 

MAFFS/FAO partnership, a new opportunity.

Since summer 2021, the Government is Sierra Leone, in partnership with FAO (Food and Agriculture organizarion of UN), is preparing for a country wide network to work with local NGO’s. The aim is to develop a network which can be activated as a Quick response team whenever a disaster has occured and quick support is needed for local farmer families.

Our local project team, named “Seeds for Growth Farmers Association” has applied for an eligible role. During the week of 8 september 2021 a group of 5 MAFFS/FAO experts has visited the local team and has inspected the project and team competencies. The provisional outcome of the visit was a placing on the short-list, but after a few weeks the ruling party seems to have interfered in the short listings. Since that moment no further communication from MAFFS/FAO has been received.

NEXT STEPS?: Please help us to make the next step forward!

We are still a small team, committed to Seeds for Growth to improve livelihoods in rural Sierra Leone. But this small team has limited possibilities to create a bigger IMPACT.

Therefore we invite YOU to volunteer for the team.
And…WHY NOT join together? Please bring your friend or network partner(s) along!

Only together we can improve the livelihoods of farmers in rural Sierra Leone?
We ‘d love to have an online chat with you about the options.

Just drop me an email: ben.bolland@bevon.nl

Final request: Please donate and support our cause!

Let’s make 2022 a year of hope and recovery for a greater group of rarmers.

Thank you for opening this june 2021 newsletter.

COVID-19 update

Worldwide we still struggle with the COVID-19 visue. Although the number of registered cases in Sierra Leone is relatively low with currently 4963 cases and 84 deaths reported, it still dominates daily life in the entire country.

And where in Western countries vaccination coverage is rising fast (in EU countries between 16% and 82%, in USA: 46% is fully vaccinated) the vaccination campaign in Sierra Leone reached only about 98,000 people, which is 1.3% of the 7.5 million inhabitants. (Source: JHopkins resource center).

Seeds for Growth in the Malal Chiefdom

Since our february 2021 news letter, our program manager, mr M.S. Kamara started a new cropping season project, based on Rice cropping combined with a few other crops like sorghum, benni, cassave and groundnuts. The process is as follows:

RICE farming started with brushing, burning and clearing in january until march. April to may is used for ploughing and seed harrowing when normally the first rains fall in the chiefdom. Most of the cut down trees remain in the farm while seeds are sown. Sorghum , Benni beans, cassava and other crops are intercrop with rice. See photo's on top.

Harvesting of rice is expected at the end of august as the selected rice is a 90-days variety.

The remaining crops will be harvested in october to ensure fhe best outcome for the farmers and recovery of the SFG-loans making this farming scheme less riksy than the maize farming.

The Weather conditions can be disastrous in Sierra Leone.

During the weeks days of the ploughing and seed harrowing, there was a very serious thunderstorm in the first half of April in the Malal Chiefdom, which caused massive destruction to many houses, properties and foodstuffs, thus further frustrating the lives of these already vulnerable people.

At Rochen town alone more than forty strong houses were destroyed while all over the chiefdom with weaker mud thatched houses were massively destroyed. See photo below.

Of course this has affected the farming situation in a genative way, still the team is expecting reasonable harvest outcomes, thanks to the combined cropping strategy

GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES, a follow up.

During our last newsletter we informed you about the Government’s plan to support farmers to buy asian tractors for the land cultivation to improve the yields and income of the farmers. Due to the COVID situation new initiatives have been postponed. Therefore, our program manager mr. M.S. Kamara remains alert for new openings to join his opportunity when it restarts again.

NEXT STEPS: Please help us to make the next step forward!

We are a small team, committed to Seeds for Growth to improve livelihoods in rural Sierra Leone. But this small team has limited sources to create a bigger IMPACT.

Therefore we would like you to help us to find new members to volunteer for the team.

Do you happen to know friends or other connections in your network, who could help us, or support us in our cause to improve the livelihoods of farmers in rural Sierra Leone?

Please pass this news letter to them and connect them to us!

Why not consider for yourself to support us? We ‘d love to have an online chat with you about the options.

Just drop me an email and I'll be happy to arrange an online meeting: ben.bolland@bevon.nl

Thank you for opening the first newsletter in 2021.

COVID-19 update

Worldwide everyone struggles with the COVID-19 visue. Also in Sierra Leone: although the number of registered cases is relatively low with currently 3862 cases and 79 deaths, it still dominates daily life.

Around the 20th of january a new lockdown of the capital Freetown and a night curfew throughout the country were needed to counter the increase of covid cases. Since then, the number of new cases have indeed decreased. Nevertheless transport systems and the entire economy have big challenges to overcome.

SEEDS FOR GROWTH PROGESS

Since our october 2020 update, we started to prepare for a new cropping season project.

Grateful for your support and donations in november/december 2020, we were able to restart the agroproject with a small group of farmers, after the lost loan recoveries due to dramatic weather and bad harvest results at the end of 2019 and in 2020.

During an evaluation of the varying outcomes of several Maize cropping seasons since the start in fall 2016, the board was advised by the local program manager Momodu Sheku (M.S.) Kamara. Based on the results since 2016 and the advice, the board decided to change to a less risky approach: Rice cropping combined with a few other crops like sorghum, benni, cassave and groundnuts. At this moment in february the preparations have been started: Brushing, burning and clearing a new rough part of local fertile bush (see photo's below), to start the new project.

Our local program manager, mr. M.S. Kamara, is happy to lead this new approach and committed himself to make the best of it, supported by the board members in the Netherlands.

GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES

The Government also has taken some new initiatives to promote agriculture as an essential economic pillar of the country. On a district meeting in begin february (Photo above) the present regional farmers and NGO-s were informed about the Governmental support to buy asian tractors for the land cultivation. Additional district meetings have been postponed due to the COVID-restrictions.

These kind of initiatives provide us new options to cooperate with the government and NGO-s to strenghten the development opportunities for farmers in the region.

NEXT STEPS

The board of Seeds for Growth consists of a small team of volunteers who is committed to the mission of Seeds for Growth. To make next steps forward we need to expand the team with knowledge and interest in agriculture in africa, social media and fundraising.

Do you happen to know friends or other connections in your network, who could help us, or support us in our cause to improve the livelihoods of farmers in rural Sierra Leone?

Please connect them to us!

Why not consider for yourself to support us and volunteer? We ‘d love to have an online chat with you about the options.

Just email us to arrange a call: ben.bolland@bevon.nl 

Let’s make 2021 a great year of recovery…

COVID-19 UPDATE

With a relatively low official number of 2390 cases and 74 casualties by today, Tuesday october 27th, Sierra Leone seems to be more succesful than many other countries in the world.

But due to the fact that the majority of the people depend on their farming and additional daily work for their income, many people still suffer from the economic crisis.

And, although, according to the UK Governments recent COVID-19 update, there are currently no restrictions on travel in Sierra Leone but COVID-19 measures are still including an over-night curfew and the compulsory wearing of a face-mask or face-covering in public are in force.

SURVIVE NOW, OR SUPPORT NEXT CROPPING SEASON?

After a very difficult consideration and discussion with the board members and local project management between two options:
A) provide food to survive now, or
B) provide seeds and support for the future harvest
we finally decided to provide food to survive. See the picture on top..

The rice has been distributed in august/september, leaving us behind with an almost empty bankaccount.

At this moment we are focussing on the next few months to start fundraising again, to be able to support the farmers at the start of the next cropping season by February 2021. For the current cropping season, the farmers revert to their old methods with previously harvested seeds.

Would you like to support us and share a little of your wealth with the less fortunate?

Please donate and support us to restart the project soon!

Thank you in advance!