Sierra
Leone’s diamond mining industry , which helped fuel its
brutal civil war through illicit sales of “blood diamonds,”
has declined over the past few years. As part of U.S. Government
efforts to help transform the country from a war-ravaged economy
to relative prosperity, USAID is working to integrate youths
from the mining industry into the agri-business sector.
Agriculture
in Sierra Leone represents a major source of livelihoods and
accounts for over 80 percent of household incomes. Food production
remains the dominant activity, accounting for over 65 percent
of agricultural activities.
USAID,
trough its Livelihood Expansion and Asset Development (LEAD)
program, is funding activities to help marginalized youth, including
unemployed youth who used to work in the diamond mines, participate
in agribusiness activities as well as business management trainings.
Since January 2008, over 500 participants have attended workshops
that included a basic introduction to business, and discussions
on marketing, costing, pricing, record keeping and financial
planning. Youths accounted for 64 percent of participants, of
which almost two thirds were women.
A
second objective of the program is to address the management
of community assets and help communities develop capacity for
agri-business enterprises. Specifically, the project focused
on economic integration of youth through self-employment. In
order to help these budding farmers get started, were given
to some of the participants start-up grants.
Last
year, approximately 690 farmers participated in a four-month
series of learning sessions delivered at experimental farm sites
known as farmer field schools. Over 65 percent of participants
had originally worked in the mining sector. In all the 23 farmer
field schools, experimental sites have been selected and site
preparation has commenced for the planting of improved cassava
varieties.
Also
in 2008, youths participated in village savings and loan activities
in a LEAD program that eventually led to the formation of 17
village savings groups with a combined membership of nearly
500 participants. These groups were trained on standard VSL
(village savings and loan) methodology, which includes modules
on membership criteria, selection, savings and loan, constitution
and record keeping.
One
of the success stories to emerge from this initiative was the
creation in the village of Kono of the FACHIMA agri-business
services company. This company sells farming tools, fertilizer,
seed and other products to farmers, while also buying their
produce, in this case, sorghum.
The
company started in 2007 thanks to the World Vision program (implementer
partner of LEAD)) funded by USAID, which provided the company
start-up equipment, seeds, farming tools and agri-business trainings.
Isatu Ngebuna, a farmer from Kono district and now one of the
company’s owners, originally attended USAID-funded training
on accounting, business, and agricultural techniques such as
crop processing and packaging.
“I
am very proud to have attended the trainings. It led me to help
form this company with 50 other owners,” she said. “I
am now economically independent, and I can afford school tuition
for my four children.”
Last
year, her company took first prize in sorghum sales among similar
companies in Sierra Leone. Sorghum is an agricultural staple
in Sierra Leone. “In the future we want to export our
products overseas,” Isatu said. “We would like to
export cocoa and coffee as well.
Isatu
and many others can attest that the seeds sown by USAID’s
agricultural initiative are sprouting in fertile soil.
