WAAPP orientates the media
The West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP-SL), is a fairly new project under the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security (MAFFS) that is being currently implemented in sixteen countries in West Africa.
WAAPP comes with a different focus as it primarily targets growth in the agricultural sector with a particular emphasis on increase in yield and production through research. It presupposes the generation, dissemination and adoption of improved agricultural technologies i.e., varieties of crops and, where applicable, machineries.
The programme is implemented through Value Chain Approach where key players along the line of production play a significant role in making sure there is adequate value addition to agricultural commodities. Significantly also, WAAPP targets the increase in productivity of the priority agricultural commodities in each country where it is being implemented and in Sierra Leone, rice and cassava are topmost on the list of priority agricultural commodities.
On Thursday, May 30th, WAAPP held a day-long Media Orientation Seminar at the Santano House, Howe Street, Freetown. The seminar was geared towards orientating the media on the WAAPP-Sierra Leone Chapter, its Project Development Objective (PDO), and the role of the media in partnering with WAAPP-SL to enhance accelerated agricultural technology dissemination and adoption in Sierra Leone. The memorable event was used as a platform to establish a formal partnership with the media in the dissemination of WAAPP-SL activities through the discussion and finalization of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The seminar attracted media practitioners from the four cardinal points of Sierra Leone.
Addressing a cross section of journalists drawn from both the print and electronic media, the Deputy Project Coordinator of WAAPP-SL, Sulaiman Sesay, noted that the seminar presented a golden platform for the project to interface with the media, describing the event as another milestone in their effort to establish a firm foundation for the successful implementation of WAAPP-SL. “Bringing the national media for an occasion like this is often a rare event and when it happens, it underscores the significance of the event,” the Deputy Director stated. He went on to state that food security has taken a center stage in every government’s development agenda and that the Government of Sierra Leone is no exception as we continue to see its efforts and strong will to boost the agricultural sector.
Sulaiman Sesay informed the press that the PDO of WAAPP-SL is “to generate and accelerate the adoption of improved agricultural technologies in the top agricultural commodity priority areas, rice and cassava being the staples of Sierra Leone, and to provide farmers with the technologies to increase productivity and improve competitiveness of their production.”
Giving the specific objectives of WAAPP-SL, the Deputy Director said the programme seeks to promote sustainable and durable productivity, competitiveness and growth of the agricultural sector by facilitating access to improved technology and best practice to agricultural producers and agribusiness men. He added that the programme also aims at improving the living conditions of consumers, especially those affected by extreme poverty, through the provision of agricultural products at competitive and affordable prices.
“The project development targets are 200,000 beneficiaries by the end of phase I, at least five technologies released by National Centers of Specialization (NCOS), particularly the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute, SLARI, 150 hectares of land covered by improved technologies and at least 120,000 beneficiaries to adopt improved technologies,” Sulaiman Sesay informed, stressing that these feats cannot be easily achieved without partnership and collaboration.
Stating the objectives of the seminar, the Deputy Director said it was held to orientate the media on the overall activities of WAAPP-SL, to create a forum for the discussion of a formal engagement between WAAPP-SL and media houses on the dissemination of WAAPP-SL activities, to establish the basis for a strong media collaboration with WAAPP, to stimulate the interest of the media in all WAAPP-related programmes, to guarantee WAAPP-SL a constant space on the news pages and radio programmes and to fully involve the media in informing, educating and helping to change the perception of farmers to adopt improved technologies and high yielding varieties of rice and cassava and also to adopt improved and better farming methods.
In his keynote address, the Deputy Director General of the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI), Doctor Mathew Gbokum, noted that Africa is behind other regions in food production as evident in the fact that the continent imports twenty-percent of its food. “We have the land, water and able-bodied human beings but the productivity gap continues to widen,” Doctor Gbokum remarked. He expressed the belief that the media has a contribution to move forward agricultural production and productivity.
Chairing the occasion, the Deputy Director-General of MAFFS, Amara Idara Sheriff, described the seminar as timely for media practitioners. He expressed optimism that by 2015 WAAPP-SL will help reduce poverty in Sierra Leone as the programme focuses on productivity.
The WAAPP-SL Communication Officer, Abraham Samura, made similar statements while delivering the vote of thanks.
By Dennis Jones
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