KEYNOTE ADDRESS
BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT,
ALHAJI DR. AHMAD TEJAN KABBAH
ON THE LAUNCHING
OF THE YEAR 2004 WORLD FOOD DAY
ON SATURDAY, 16TH OCTOBER 2004
----------------------------------------------------------------

Mr. Chairman
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

On the 16th of October 1945, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations was established specifically to address the problem of hunger and nutrition standards throughout the world. As we commemorate the 59th anniversary of this event, we find reason to celebrate the vision of the founders of this organization. We also commend the relentless commitment of succeeding generations of leaderships of the organization that has given effect to this vision by developing and implementing programmes and activities such as the pursuit of food security, which have become key pillars supporting the development of the human race. In this regard, I would like to pay rich tributes to the current Director-General of the FAO, Mr. Jacques Diouf, for his effective stewardship of the organization. Africa, and Sierra Leone in particular, has been among the major beneficiaries of these efforts.

It is disheartening, however, to note that despite all our efforts at the modernization of agriculture, sometimes involving high investments in this industry, over 540 million people still remain hungry in the world and still more suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Every effort should be made at global and national levels to support the prescriptions of the Millennium Development Goals agreed on by World Leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000.

Mr. Chairman,

During its 59 years of existence the organization has pioneered or supported efforts for improving agricultural productivity in a sustainable manner as well as spreading the benefits of such improvement to societies that need these benefits the most. It is therefore significant that the theme for this year's commemoration is 'Biodiversity for Food Security'.

This theme underscores the challenge we currently face as a nation. This is the need to broaden our food base, as opposed to our current appreciation and acceptance of very few food types and a heavy reliance on imported food. Lack of diversity in our diet (including lack of meat, fish and other proteins) and an over reliance on imports, deprives us of essential nutrients necessary for our mental and physical development as well as making us, as a country, vulnerable to price escalations outside our control.

A significant and disturbing result, in our case, of the lack of diversity in our diets is that it has led to a high incidence of malnutrition, wasting and stunting, especially of our most valuable assets, our women and children. It is now a matter of urgency that we reverse this trend, which contributes, not insignificantly, to our low level of development. It is important for us to note that biodiversity in agriculture is driven by diversity in the home. From the cooking pot, our women play a crucial role in changing our diets and the trend in our food habits. It is therefore critical that we achieve household food security as well as national food security. We must endeavour to use this year to expand our food base and determine to enrich our diets with a variety of food.

Mr Chairman,

We need to educate our farmers to understand the importance of biodiversity and its importance to not only production but also to the environment. To this end, a Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan (BSAP) has been completed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security and is being implemented as part of our agricultural policy.

The benefits of crop diversification are not only limited to an expansion in our food base, but also, and most importantly for the farmer, it extends soil use and enriches the natural habitat which maximizes the benefits to be derived from farming. To educate our farmers in these and other related matters, I am pleased to report that by the end of 2004, 20,000 farmers and 260 extension agents from the Ministries of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security as well as Fisheries and Marine Resources will have benefited from the FAO funded project under their Special Programme for Food Security, which is otherwise known as the Farmers Field School Programme. This programme is jointly funded with UNDP.

We are grateful to these and other agencies and other agencies for their support and the development of the extension delivery services that will be made available to farmers through training of extension agents. The strengthening of our extension- delivery services will ensure that farmers will not only be taught to appreciate diversification in crop production, but they will also be taught simple vegetable production techniques, post harvest management and processing, soil management, short cycle livestock management, as well as fish pond management. These farmers will be encouraged to progress from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture, albeit initially on a small scale. In training extension agents, we will reduce, significantly, the current unacceptable ratio of 1:1000 extension agent to farmer.

Mr Chairman,
Rice is our main staple food. Because of rising world demand of this important staple food world rice prices are expected to remain high. While we are dependent on rice import we continue to be subject to the evil effect of world rice prices as shown by our recent experience which is so well known to you all. We need to grow our own food. Besides, and significantly, consuming imported rice is exporting job opportunities to Asia. If we use it to our advantage, increase in demand and spending power in neighbouring countries will provide us with a ready market when we increase our domestic production and in the process contribute to job creation.

Mr. Chairman,
My Government is aware of and commends the effort of some regions of our country that currently appreciate and consume other foods such as potatoes and cassava as secondary staples. These commodities which are often available in fresh conditions, are by far better than the imported ones which may be expired by the time they reach our market through storage and transit time from Asia during which period the food loses its nutritional value.

Our natural resource endowment affords us the comparative advantage to grow our own food as opposed to those countries that have other comparative advantages and other resources, such as oil, which provides them with revenue to import their food as well as creating employment for their people. We must therefore use our own resources wisely and to our advantage.

Mr Chairman,

The assurance of household food security, in the short term, depends on a rapid increase in food production and diversification. Our target, therefore, is a minimum 50% increase of all food and export crops by 2007, based on today's production figures. We are confident, however, that a 100% increase in production is achievable and we expect to achieve this, especially with the current investment we are making in agriculture and the support services, such as feeder roads, markets construction, storage facilities, etc.

By the end of this year, we will have supplied, 250 metric tonnes of fertilizer, 2,125 metric tonnes of seed rice, 150,000 cashew seedlings, 62.8 metric tonnes of ginger and 120,000 seedlings of oil palm. We expect to cultivate, in 2007, 650,000 hectares of rice which will yield 1.3 million metric tonnes,
The last time we achieved self sufficiency in rice production was in 1978. We also expect, in the same period to produce nearly one metric tones of cassava, seventy five thousand metric tones of sweet potatoes, five hundred thousand tree crops, three hundred and four thousand metric tones of groundnut, five million chickens and six hundred thousand livestock. These figures are all significantly more than what was produced before 1990.

Mr. Chairman,

I recently gave a directive that all government institutions should use local rather than imported rice. This will create ready market for farmers and by extension encourage them to produce more. By giving farmers a ready market for their produce, they should be able to build capital to procure additional machinery, agro-chemicals and fuel for operation in order to cultivate larger acreages while at the same time reduce their dependency on government for inputs. I had also directed that seed rice for the year 2004 planting season should be procured directly from farmers rather than through contractors who only act as middle men and deny farmers the full benefits and profits for their labours. This will also reduce opportunities for corruption.

The challenge now to you farmers is you should produce more and form appropriate bodies in your localities in order to pool your produce and sell directly to government and other buyers.

Mr Chairman,

I am pleased to report that this directive to procure locally was adhered to satisfactorily and will be practised in subsequent procurement of all seed rice and rice for use by public institutions. The participation of the Ministry of Agriculture on the Feeder Roads Committee chaired by the Minister of Works and Technical Maintenance is aimed at ensuring the construction new of feeder roads leading to highly productive agricultural areas. This will facilitate the delivery of inputs and harvests into and out of the farm respectively. Once farmers flood the market with rice and other foodstuffs, food prices will definitely come down making it affordable to all.

The recent inauguration of the national, regional and district executives of the National Association of Farmers of Sierra Leone (NAFSL) and particularly the ensuing discussions, paved the way for enhancing NAFSL's contribution to the food security drive. Reports on production figures presented in that ceremony, vividly underscores the fact that NAFSL is now solidly on the ground.

Mr Chairman,

Government is pursuing other policies which support our food security objective. Our Poverty Reduction Strategy, which is currently being developed with the help of our donor partners, identifies food security, job creation and good governance as the central themes. These themes are the pillars on which our policies are based. This blueprint will provide the roadmap for the development of all sectors of our economy within the short to medium term and even beyond. Funds that will accrue from domestic and donor resources based on this Strategy will focus on the economic and social sectors as prescribed in the appropriate sections of the Strategy document. Our food security objective is based on growth in the agricultural sector. As we are all aware, agriculture is time-bound and calendar-dependent and, as such, will be given the timely priority it deserves.

Our decentralization and rural development policies are aimed at reducing the rural-urban migration, which puts urban resources under immense pressure. These policies will ensure the creation of jobs locally through the use of local contractors for infrastructural, rehabilitation and reconstruction works in order to generate income, locally. The investment code contains adequate incentives to stimulate investment in Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, Tourism, etc. areas which are naturally rural-based. Job creation and entrepreneurial development would retain able-bodied men and women in the rural areas to support agriculture either permanently or on a part-time basis for sustenance. My Government's decentralization policy puts the people in the front seat of decision-making, planning and the implementation of their developmental aspirations and above all in the monitoring of development-oriented activities. Taking authority and power to the regions reduces the pressures on government from governing from the center and also reduces the cost on those being governed as travel to the capital for consultations, endorsements, etc will be reduced, significantly.

Mr Chairman,

At the centre of Government, we have established the Ministerial Policy Committee of Cabinet Ministers, headed by the Vice President. This Committee has had its first meeting, which was fruitful, and it will ensure that the necessary linkages are made across government to make effective our food security objective. I encourage all of you to give both district and national level support to this objective. In this regard, the Vice President's recent communication to all district council chairmen to establish District Food Security Co-ordinating Committees is intended to ensure local co-operation and ownership and therefore local solutions to local problems.

Let me take this opportunity to thank our donor partners who are giving us their support, in particular, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany. Through their Ministry of Technical Co-operation, (GTZ) the German Government are supporting a USD3 million food security and rehabilitation projects in Kono and Kailahun. As part of this project, the rehabilitation of the Makeni seed center has been completed. Other German Government-funded assistance includes the rehabilitation of the Kobia seed center, which has also been completed. Negotiations are now at an advanced stage for the funding of a seed multiplication project, also to be funded by the German Government.

Pursuant to my government's Youth Policy Development Programme, a Swedish Government funded project jointly implemented by the Ministries of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Youth and Sports and Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security under FAO Execution, has involved youths from 12 Districts in commercial agriculture. To date, about 200 metric tons of seed rice and 60 metric tons of groundnuts have been supplied to 257 youth groups in 12 Districts. In addition over 300 acres of riverine grasslands and seasonally flooded bolilands have been cultivated mechanically this season, in appropriate ecologies, under this Youth Employment Project.
Mr Chairman,

Government is aware of the fact that cultivation of additional acreages to ensure the production of 1,300,000 metric tonnes of rice by 2007 currently have 100 tractors, 30 medium level rice mills and 30 cassava graters. Currently, NaCSA, with funding from the Islamic Development Bank, are implementing a project to build one store and one drying floor in every chiefdom. Storage is important as research into post harvest and processing losses demonstrate that as much as a 30% loss is accrued through lack of post harvest facilities. These losses will be reduced, significantly, if manual processing methods are completely eliminated. We therefore have to address this issue by, for example, the mechanization of rice milling, palm oil processing, coffee hulling, cassava processing, etc. The recent commissioning of one rice mill in Makeni and one in Bo with output capacity of one metric tonne per hour has stimulated rice production in areas within close proximity to those machine locations.

The installation of five micro palm oil processing mills in Blama, Njala, Daru, Bumpe Taninahun and Sahn Malin were aimed at yield maximization through the elimination of processing losses and also to ensure hygienic palm oil production for local consumption and export.

The German Government has also provided grant funding for the establishment of a Right to Food Secretariat. This Secretariat, which services the ministerial policy committee will monitor food security activities throughout the country and will report to the Hon. Vice President for my attention on the progress being made towards our achievement of that objective. I would like to state here that the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany is not supporting us without the assurance of the political commitment to reduce hunger and ensure sustainable food security. According to the FAO, Brazil is the only other country in the world that has made a political commitment at the Presidential level to a time bound elimination of hunger, food security and right to food for citizens. I need your assistance in ensuring that we meet this objective.

Mr. Chairman,

Government is aware of the fact that cultivation of additional acreages to ensure the production of one million three hundred thousand metric tones of rice by 2007 would require mechanization in terms of production and processing. In this vein I am pleased to remind you that we currently have one hundred tractors, thirty medium level rice mills and thirty cassava graters.

I have been informed that farmers throughout the country are observing this year's World Food Day in Kenema. I am also delighted to note that there is competition between regions in terms of the suitability, quality and uniqueness of exhibits proposed for inspection. I encourage you all to give both district and national level support to the Food Security Drive to which we all should own-up for the simple fact that without food our survival on earth will be seriously threatened. Nature has been very kind and generous to us; all we need to do is to take advantage of the situation.

I am pleased to have personally participated in this year's World Food Day Celebrations, and especially so since the theme is Biodiversity for Food Security. It is a theme that is apt for us today and one that we must embrace not just for the next year but until we can assure ourselves that we have achieved full diversification in our diets. I shall also personally embrace it as a measure of my commitment to and support for the country's food security programme. Finally, let me at this juncture welcome all of you and wish all of us a successful World Food Day observance.

It now gives me the greatest pleasure to declare the year 2004 World Food Day celebrations OPEN.

-End-