One of the Chairladies Madam Zainab R. Kamara of Woreh Yaema village, Yainkaissa Section, said the pastor’s involvement in agriculture has impacted their various communities and positively changed their livelihood, “supporting us with seedlings and trainings; buying our produce at satisfactory costs and most importantly, loans us without any interest, thus aids us to shun the operations of our Community Banks which levy heavy interest rates”. She added: “It is from our farmer-group savings accounts that we loan our membership to settle individual or family problems with moderate interests attached, and by extension, loan local businessmen within our localities; almost rendering our Community Banks useless”. Aminata Bangura and Mayillah from Yainkaissa said with the existence of the pastor’s farm, life is becoming easier for them as housewives, “inasmuch we independently shoulder the academic burdens of our children; support our husbands and feed our homes”.
During a two-day training held Wednesday and Thursday, January 16th – 17th 2019 at the farm site, on microfinance and loan, bookkeeping and general management, and best agronomic practices in crop production including maize, rice, vegetables and cassava, the Farm Manager Patrick S. Koroma commended the farmers and local authorities for maximum cooperation; expressed optimism for short duration varieties that can enable the farmers with bumpy harvests twice a year plus extension of the farm to five-hundred acres in the near future. He disclosed that the six women-groups of about four-hundred farmers from Gbomsamba, Royeama, Woreh Yeama, Yainkassa, Royanka and Maronkoh are not only beneficiaries of yearly refresher trainings, seedlings, tools, fertilizers, machinery for free of charge tilling of their acreages, “but are paid for labor”, calling on the Government of Sierra Leone, local and international non-governmental organizations to support the Servant of God whom he said, singlehandedly runs the farm since 2004.
Pastor Mambu said he uses the grains produced by his farm for the chicken-feed, and the cassava for garie production, noting that since access to the market has always been a challenge for male farmers producing cassava in that part of the country, his farm management would be reaching cassava farmers to buy their produce as a means of support, and at the same time, use their wives and families for marketing.
He told pressmen during a conducted tour on the farm: “As far as me and my wife are concerned, mere preaching of the Word of God is not enough to transform lives because Jesus Christ fed the multitudes. Though it has not been easy transforming the mindsets of the locals, our intention is to break the cycle of poverty in the near future, with plans to turn this farm-site to a training center; hoping to do likewise to other regions across Sierra Leone, in a bid to compliment the effort of Government in its food sufficiency drive”. He extended gratitude to God and some Missionaries from the U.S, working with Arms Around Africa, and Ken Royal Foundation, for supporting him with two tractors.
