By: Mohamed Sylvanus Blake, PRO, ACC
The Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission, Sierra Leone 🇸🇱, Francis Ben Kaifala Esq. has on Wednesday the 16th October 2024, joined His Excellency, the President, the Government of Sierra Leone, Farmers, the International Community, and the general public at the Kailahun Town Field, Luawa Chiefdom, in the Kailahun District, Eastern Sierra Leone, to observe and commemorate the first anniversary of the "FEED SALONE" Government Flagship program being a core part of the Government’s Big Five Game Changers.
The event which brought together Farmers Associations from across the 16 districts of Sierra Leone 🇸🇱, to display their products, wares and reassess the effects of efforts and resources invested into the flagship program, was an agricultural pageantry that served to remind Sierra Leoneans of the economic and moral need to be a food secure and soverign nation, which was reminiscent of the old "Cocoa/Agricultural Show".
The Feed Salone Anniversary is celebrated in conjunction with the World Food Day, set aside by the United Nations to give prominence to the drive for global food security and the investment of efforts and resources into defeating hunger and starvation.
It could be recalled that while declaring the "Feed Salone ” Flagship program" on the 16th October, 2023, in Pujehun, His Excellency Brigadier (Rtd.) Dr. Julius Maada Bio stated that the program "will boost agricultural productivity to fuel inclusive growth, increase local food production and reduce our dependence on food import, reduce hunger, increase export earnings, create jobs, and build a climate resilient food system"
President Bio further stated that no country has ever recorded any meaningful development without going through an agricultural revolution that will allow it to feed her population sustainably and be food sovereign. "We have to be able to feed ourselves, and we must do this now" he re-iterated.
He furthered that he has not only told the people to farm, but has prioritized state investment into agriculture (the Feed Salone Flagship), encouraged and supported donor and private sector investment in agriculture, and as an individual, has led by example by establishing his own farms, including a 1400 acres of rice farm that he commenced harvesting yesterday, fish, vegetables, cash crops, and other farms.
When we farm, we will produce what we eat and do so with quality, the President added.
President Bio encouraged all present to invest in agriculture as it is most rewarding.
"We encourage the private sector to invest in agriculture. My Government will continue to provide the enabling environment through investment in roads and other infrastructure that will enable farming" the President averred.
ACC Commissioner, Francis Ben Kaifala in his expose told this medium that the ACC has a broad mandate to protect public resources and in pursuing that mandate, it will grab with tight fist every opportunity to be aware of where Government resources are being expended, follow through on same to ensure accountability, and continue to remind ourselves to uphold integrity in the discharge of our responsibilities.
"Sieera Leone's 🇸🇱 dignity and sovereignty can only be 100%, when it can feed herself sustainably, and from what we have seen here today, I believe we are on the right trajectory". However, we should not and will not be complacent. We will continue to address promptly all suspected instances of corruption that in this and all other Government and public interest projects and programmes," he asserted.
The Commissioner, who is a prominent farmer, affirmed that by this event, he felt rekindled and enthused to continue farming and called on all Sierra Leoneans to take up farming.
Other dignitaries who made significant and meaningful contributions at the august event included the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Musa Kpaka, the Chairman of President's Initiative on Renewable Energy, Climate Change and Food Security Dr. Kandeh K. Yumkella etc.
The Senior Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Prince Cole, chaired the event.
