That a team of Chinese Agricultural Experts arrived in Sierra Leone on Tuesday 1st August, 2023 to play a pivotal role in advancing Sierra Leone’s agricultural sector in line with one of the five key thematic areas of the SLPP Manifesto 2023 has demonstrated convincingly that His Excellency President Brig. (Rtd) Dr. Julius Maada Bio’s priority in his second inning is for Sierra Leone to be food self-sufficient.

This key thematic area FEED SALONE, according to the Manifesto, is an initiative to boost agricultural productivity to ensure food security and inclusive economic growth. The next SLPP Government will boost agricultural productivity by increasing investment, which will fuel inclusive economic growth, boost food production, reduce hunger and poverty, create jobs, boost export earnings and build our resilience in the face of climate change.

When launching the SLPP Manifesto 2023 in Freetown, President Bio assured Sierra Leoneans that if re-elected, he would prioritize agriculture in his next Government like he has done to the Free Quality Education (FQE), his flagship programme. So, with the arrival of a team of Chinese Agricultural Experts to play a pivotal role in advancing our agricultural sector, in addition to the early provision of agricultural equipment and other implements worth millions of United States Dollars offered to Sierra Leone by the People’s Republic of China for the establishment of Agricultural Training Centres at Gbere Junction for the Northern Region and in Bo City for the Southern Regions, Sierra Leoneans can now be rest assured of President Bio’s determination to revolutionize the agricultural sector of Sierra Leone with emphasis on high-yield rice and corn breeding, providing local farm training at the two Agricultural Training Centres, and implementing modern farming techniques to enhance productivity and efficiency.

We understand that the Chinese Agricultural Experts are here to help with high-yielding rice and corn breeding, as well as provide local farmers training in those Agricultural Training Centres in the North and South as a way of contributing to the success of FEED SALONE, the President’s initiative.

These are seasoned professionals in agriculture and agribusiness and they will collaborate closely with local farmers and agricultural institutions respectively.

While we commend the President for making tremendous efforts to ensure that FEED SALONE succeeds, he should ensure that his initiative becomes sustainable at any cost for Sierra Leone to once again become food self-sufficient as she had during the early days of our independence, when our country generated enough foreign earnings from agricultural produce like rice, cocoa, coffee, ginger, piassava, you name it. And now that the stage has been set for the full implementation of FEED SALONE initiative, we should be very optimistic as a people that the journey has begun for agricultural transformation and progress towards achieving food security and economic prosperity under the indefatigable leadership of His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio. With the prioritization of FEED SALONE by a much determined and caring President who loves his people and country, we are very certain that only the sky will be his limit in successfully transforming the agricultural landscape of this country through food security and economic prosperity.