NMJD ENDS TRAINING FOR RURAL FARMERS

The Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD) has completed an almost two-week long training for 26 farmers associations in five districts in the south and eastern regions of Sierra Leone. The training was geared towards improving the knowledge and skills of farmers in the use of modern agricultural techniques and new crop varieties to increase food productivity. It started in Kenema on Wednesday 9 June 2010 and ended in Bo and Kono on Thursday 17 June 2010.

Adama Kamara of NMJD facilitating a session on gender and

poverty eradication in farming communities

The training, which is the first phase, benefited 170 farmers drawn from the executives of the 26 farmers associations in Bo, Pujehun, Kono, Kailahun and Kenema districts that are supported by NMJD with a grant from the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (D&P).

It was designed in a way that critical issues, apart from farming, that have potential impact on the lives and livelihoods of farmers such as human rights, gender, leadership, group formation and management were discussed. The whole training was packaged and delivered within the context of making farming attractive and a vehicle for rural development and economic prosperity.

“This training is not only good for us, but very timely, as well. We now know that some of the ways we’ve been doing things need to change, if we’re to derive any benefit from farming, “Alhaji Abdulai of Bawma Gbatama in Lower Bambara chiefdom, Kenema district, said.

Farmers form about 70 percent of the population of Sierra Leone with 80-90 percent of it living in rural areas where basic facilities and infrastructure are practically non-existent. This makes farmers to be not only amongst the poorest people in the country, but that they’re also always associated with poverty and underdevelopment.

Farmers at the Youth Centre hall in Koidu, Kono district

The training, therefore, sought to create a forum for farmers to do a critical examination of their situations: why’re farmers the poorest group of people in Sierra Leone? what does poverty mean to them? what’ve they been doing that need to be done differently?

The farmers blamed several factors for their chronic poverty. Key amongst them were: poor agricultural practices that see them still clinging on old ways of doing things, traditional and cultural beliefs and practices, poor processing and storage facilities, poor road networks, lack of access to markets, absence of loan facilities, land tenure system and gender inequality.

They were, however, quick to admit that there were some factors that they themselves could do something to address, but for others, they could not do anything without outside intervention or support.

“We can be able to reduce the number of social and other events that we organize during and after harvests that eat up almost all our meagre produce. We can also be able to minimize the high level of dependency caused mainly by the extended family system. These and some others we can do for ourselves, with or without external support.

“But there is no way we can embark on large-scale farming or small holding commercialization without support from the government and its development partners. This is because here we need good feeder roads, competitive markets, processing machines and new technology to add value to our produce, modern farming implements and loan facilities,” Mohamed Sesay of Daru in the Kailahun district said.

This training is a sequel to the project, which NMJD and the Eastern Community Radio implemented last year in 16 chiefdoms in the south and eastern regions of the country. The project focused on helping farmers to increase their yields and production levels of major food crops such as rice, cassava and groundnut.

In addition to providing them with seed rice, groundnut, vegetable seeds, food for work and tools, as well as the construction of drying floors and grain stores, the farmers were also encouraged and supported to form themselves into farmers associations with democratically-established governance structures.

Today, there’re 26 such associations in the project areas with each association having a membership that ranges from 45 t0 60 farm family heads. In all, a total of 1,282 farmers received direct support from NMJD last year. This has resulted in the creation of individual and community seed banks for the use of these farming communities, apart from the significant increase in rice production that they recorded last year.

The main purpose of this training was to promote human rights (mainly ECOSOC rights), gender justice and equality in social relations in the farming communities within the project areas, ensure economic development and prosperity in rural

Participants at the One World Link hall in Bo

communities by practicing sustainable farming methods that will minimize post-harvest loses and increase capacity of farmers to maximize income from their produce.

“The training was very successful by every standard. There was a lot of sharing and learning amongst farmers and facilitators throughout the duration of the training. The farmers showed great interest, asked interesting questions and made brilliant contributions.

“Even though they’re in the crucial time of the planting season, no farmer was in a hurry to go back. We only hope they’ll put into practice what they’ve learned, and will also ensure that others benefit from it too,” Sallieu Kamara, who coordinated the training, summed it all up.

The youngest participant in the training in Kenema wandering around the hall during break