Recounting the Ministry’s achievements, Mr Sankoh said that as a Ministry, “we are very determined to work assiduously under the current Minister to move on to higher heights.” He further went on to state that the Ministry has established quality objectives to increase productivity and production. Recent milestones and achievements he cited include support to transfer ownership of farm equipment by farmers; promoting commercial agriculture through the small holder commercialization scheme; In the last five years, the Ministry has attracted over 20 private sector organizations in the sector including international brands like ADDAX, SOCFIN, SIERRA AKKAR among others. Processors have come in to the sector in the likes of Lion Mountain and Mountain Lion and they are packaging rice to cater for many demands, 5, 10, 20 Kilos etc. Mr Sankoh stated that the Ministry had tried to address cross cutting issues of gender, youths and farmers health, and can now boast of a Gender Unit. He recounted other key initiatives such as working closely with SLARI to strengthen research in the sector, establish 1218 farmer field schools; 402 ABCs all over the country, and agricultural units and facilities in every Chiefdom; The Chief Agriculturist added that the Ministry had done so much to open up the country and as such had constructed and rehabilitated 2,707KM of feeder roads throughout the country. “The Ministry has pushed for access to finance for farmers by 51 financial services associations and 17 community banks. We are encouraging farmers to move to lowlands areas and 5000 hectares of inland valley swamps have been rehabilitated,“ he concluded
