AYV News, November 4, 2024
Forbes, an American business magazine owned by Forbes, has detailed Sierra Leone food security strides in its latest edition, focusing on the country making history as it sows the seeds of food sovereignty.
One of the Magazine’s leading Senior Contributors, Daphne Ewing-Chow deeply touched on the strides scored so far in Sierra Leone’s moves to achieve food sufficiency.
The writer wrote: “Appointed in August 2023 by President Dr. Julius Maada Bio to deliver on his mission for a bold agricultural transformation in Sierra Leone, Kpaka— a Harvard-educated technocrat with a Ph.D. in Political Economy from the London School of Economics— hit the ground running.
“Within weeks of his appointment, he crafted the ambitious Feed Salone strategy to turn the President’s vision into action. On October 16, 2023— World Food Day— President Bio unveiled Feed Salone, a sweeping plan to reduce Sierra Leone’s reliance on foreign food imports, tackle malnutrition, bolster resilience to climate change, and uplift rural communities across the country.
“The scars of Sierra Leone’s past are deep. It has been more than two decades since the end of a brutal civil war, but the legacy of that conflict— poverty, fractured infrastructure, and an agricultural sector stuck in subsistence farming— remains ever-present. For Kpaka, this is personal. He spent his early childhood in Pujehun, one of the country’s poorest districts, raised by his grandmother, a subsistence farmer. He still recalls the pride that she and others like her had in growing what they ate.
“All of these things— you never know how they’ll seep into your consciousness, but they’re there. After the war was over, a scholarship took him to high school in Singapore, and from there, he traveled to Kenya and Cambodia, volunteering in rural communities and absorbing lessons that would later guide his work”.
Forbes is published biweekly, it features original articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. Forbes also reports on related subjects such as technology, communications, science, and law. Headquarters are in New York City. See page 5 for more.
