AYV News, September 6, 2023
In what has been a welcoming initiative to many farmers across the country, Golley Agriculture Development Sierra Leone Limited has successfully completed the training of over 200 locals across the country on the use of dripping irrigation in modern day farming. The company is now putting modalities in place to secure lands for active commercial farming, so as to earnest food production and sufficiency in the county.
Under the supervision of its CEO, Ambassador Omrie Golley, the company was able to train at least fifty (50) mostly women and youths in each of its four Agriculture Demonstration Centres across the country.
It could be recalled that in a series of ceremonies between 8th and 14th November 2022, Sierra Leone’s former Ambassador to the Republic of South Korea, initiated the construction of agric-education centres in different parts of the country. The idea of the project then was to introduce a new agricultural system based on drip irrigation technology, perfected in Israel, to enable crop production continuously throughout the year, instead of seasonally.
The four agric centers were constructed in Port Loko City in the Northwestern Region, Bumbuna Town in the Northern Region, Gelehun Town in Bo District Southern Region, and Belabu Town in Kenema City Eastern Region. The 4 locations have been carefully selected to serve as demonstration centres for people of the 4 provincial regions of Sierra Leone. A fifth (5th) center is under construction and near completion at the northern regional headquarter of Makeni City.
Partnering with one of the most famous experts in the use of modern drip irrigation technology called Netafim from Israel, Golley Agriculture Development has placed this modern technology at the forefront of its plans to increase agricultural production and food security throughout the country. Dripping kits, at the centre of this advanced firm of agricultural technology, were purchased months ago to fast track production.
The training of local farmers in the selected agricultural development centres had taken centre stage in this new modern initiative with be beneficiaries being adequately trained and after the training period, being effectively equipped to manage their own local farms. The vision and direction of the project is to properly train locals in the various stages of agricultural production such as planning, growing, storing and distributing carefully selected food products, through the use of modern agricultural techniques and management systems, thereby increasing production and quality and reducing costs.
A variety of food products such as corn, cucumber, pepper, cabbage, macadamia nut , tomatoes etc, have already been successfully planted at the various centres around the country, as part of the initial pilot targets and harvesting and sales have been done. The company is also now putting modalities in place for genuine partnerships in agriculture food production across the country. Already, a team of experts from the company have identified lands for commercial farming. These lands will be installed with the most modern irrigation systems to enable perennial farming of selected identified crops.
Meanwhile, Ambassador Omrie Golley’s initiative continues to receive countrywide approval with the various stakeholders being very impressed with training aspect, not only assisting local farmers but even school going pupils as part of their agricultural science curriculum. This is why the communities have voluntarily decided to let out their lands to the company as a form of long-term lease for commercial farming, thus creating job and employments for locals.
