A 21-man delegation, with representatives from various institutions/projects, under the Sierra Leone Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security, is currently in China to participate in a three-week long seminar on Agricultural Products Processing and Seed Breeding Technology.

Welcoming the delegation at the country’s Embassy in Beijing on Thursday, 14 July 2016, Envoy Alimamy Philip Koroma expressed delight in receiving compatriots at the embassy, which he referred to as “home away from home”, also expressing optimism that at the end of their training session, the team would return home and contribute positively to the development of its ministry.

China, he noted, is a leading nation globally in a range of sectors, not least in agriculture. As such, the ambassador added that he was looking forward to seeing the team becoming the “shakers and movers of the ministry by way of improvement in production and productivity level.”

He admonished Sierra Leoneans coming for training and seminar sessions in the Asian Nation to make use of all the available opportunities and multiply knowledge gained in a bid to replicate same towards the growth of their country.

The Ambassador thanked the Chinese Government through its Ministry of Agriculture for offering such training opportunities to Sierra Leone, appealing: “We need more of these trainings.”

 In her brief statement, Bridget Oyah Kamara, who is the Koinadugu District Agriculture Officer, also doubling as head of the delegation, pledged that they would go back home and implement whatever they would learn at the seminar, promising to literally go back “as various breeds of crops.”

 Following their visit to the China Agricultural University and China Academy of Agricultural Science, Madam Kamara said they were very impressed.

 She observed that the various institutions they were representing like the Agriculture Research Institute, the Sierra Leone Seeds Certification Agency, and Seed Multiplication Project, all needed to be built upon in a bid to improve on the country’s agricultural production and productivity.

Therefore, she pointed out, the Seminar couldn’t have come at a better time than now as the ministry was having huge responsibilities in terms of the key recovery areas of the country’s recovery programmes.

 Madam Kamara appealed to the Chinese Government for more long term trainings on seeds breeding technology since “enhancing commercial agriculture can be ensured through trainings and strong human resource base. We can learn through seminars but we can’t get the needed technicalities. What we also need are long term trainings in areas of post graduate degrees.”