Goals of Sustainable Agriculture in
Sierra Leone: Can they be achieved in
the Absence of Climate Change Capacity
Building of Small-holder Farmers?
African Technology Policy Studies Network

TECHNOPOLICY BRIEF | No. 26
Teddy Amara Morlai
Chris Bobo Squire
Kelleh Gbawuru Mansaray
Gibril Vandy

Goals of Sustainable Agriculture in Sierra
Leone: Can they be achieved in the Absence of
Climate Change Capacity Building of
Small-holder Farmers?

Teddy Amara Morlai
Leonard Cheshire Disability,
West Africa
Chris Bobo Squire
Fourah Bay College,
University of Sierra Leone

Kelleh Gbawuru Mansaray
Fourah Bay College,
University of Sierra Leone
Gibril Vandy
St. Joseph's Convent,
Sierra Leone

The African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) is a multidisciplinary network of researchers, private sector actors andpolicy makers promoting the generation, dissemination, use andmastery of science, technology and innovation (ST&I) for African
development, environmental sustainability and global inclusion.
ATPS intends to achieve its mandate through research, capacity
building and training, science communication/dissemination andsensitization, participatory multi-stakeholder dialogue,knowledge brokerage, and policy advocacy.
Published by the African Technology Policy Studies Network
P O Box 10081, 00100 GPO Nairobi Kenya
2011

Published by the African Technology Policy Studies Network

ISBN: 978-9966-030-05-4

Table of Contents
Acknowledgement

4

Summary

5

Background5

The ATPS-sponsored Research on Climate Change Adaptation

7

Emerging Issues from the Findings and implications for

8

Agricultural Production
The Way Forward

11

References

14

Goals of Sustainable Agriculture in Sierra Leone | 3

Acknowledgement
This policy brief was produced as part of the implementation of the African
Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) Phase VI Strategic Plan, 2008 – 2012
funded by ATPS Donors including the Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken (DGIS)
the Netherlands, Rockefeller Foundation, amongst others. The authors hereby
thank the ATPS for the financial and technical support during the implementationof the program. The Authors particularly thank the ATPS Climate Sense Program
Director, Dr. Kevin Urama (ATPS); and the Program Coordinators including Prof.
Francis Mutua (ATPS Kenya); Dr. George Essegbey (ATPS Ghana), Prof. Eric
Eboh (ATPS Nigeria), Dr. Nicholas Ozor (ATPS), and Ms. Wairimu Mwangi (ATPS)
for their technical support during the research process.

4 | Goals of Sustainable Agriculture in Sierra Leone

Summary
The present national goal for agriculture is food security and self-sufficiency
through commercial agriculture (extensification), by providing machineries andagro-chemicals that would not be affordable, accessible and available to all
farmers in Sierra Leone. It is therefore imperative to note that a potential of byepassing small-holder farmers does exist- which may be very detrimental to theachievement of feeding the entire nation through commercial agriculture alone. It
should not be overemphasized that the average population of Sierra Leone will
not attain food self-sufficiency status without sufficient locally produced food; andthis will only be possible by improving on small-scale farming in tandem withcommercial agriculture. The emergence of climate change impacts will
exacerbate this problem. Small-holder farmers have been greatly affected andindigenous food production is gradually declining because small-holder farmers
have often missed their start-of-farming dates; pest and disease proliferations are
becoming high and the adaptive capacity to address these problems is low.
Ignorance to address these problems would also pose negative impacts onsustainable food production in Sierra Leone. Science, technology and innovation
therefore have major roles to play. These in combination with capacity building of
small-holder farmers in the area of climate change adaptation in agriculture, canundoubtedly spur sustainable agricultural production and economic growth incountry.

Background
Reforms of agricultural policies in Sierra
Leone often take GDP growth as the major
target for agricultural development in the
country. Commercial agriculture such as
high concentration on cash crop production
and mechanized large-scale agriculture
have therefore often been the interest of the
public sector. The fact that GDP is only amacro-economic indicator, and does not
speak well for the poor, who form over 70% of the country's population, puts
agriculture as one of the least of livelihoods options, if small-scale farmers are
bye-passed in its development.

Goals of Sustainable Agriculture in Sierra Leone | 5

Increase in the impacts of climate change has been confirmed to have an
inextricable link with food crops and livestock production. Thus climate change
impacts could be especially deepening poverty in a fragile economy like Sierra
Leone, which has little or no adaptive/financial capacity to respond to climaterelated problems. Global estimates put temperature to be at a 1.50C rate ofincrease above pre-industrial temperature and suggest that any further 20C rise
will lead to a decline of 5% in cereal production (Schar et al, 2006)- which will put
30-200 million people at risk of hunger – most of whom will come from African
Countries. Other predictions even show that this rate of change will lead to 70%
decrease in crop yields by the end of the century if no adaptation takes place.
Climate change will also reduce the source of protein, and it is alreadyresponsible for the death of 150,000 people globally(Warren et al, 2006).
In Sierra Leone, the poor (about 75% of the country's population) greatly rely on
agriculture as a major source of livelihoods. It is undoubted that agricultural
production in the country is climate-sensitive. It is also noteworthy that each foodcrop has its own tolerance limit in terms of rainfall and temperature. In Sierra
Leone, climate change is already on the verge of reaching and/ or exceeding thetolerance limit of the major food crops produced in the country. Alreadytemperature is averaging around 280C and average rainfall is estimated todecrease by 3% below the 1990 estimate of 2746 mm. This is likely to affect major
food crops such as rice (with tolerance limit of 250C), Cacao (180-210C) and Oilpalm (250-280C). Hence, whilst mechanized farming is significant, conduct ofscientific research and introduction of affordable, accessible and acceptable
technology and innovation are equally important to solve this problem.
The total arable land resources of Sierra Leone for agricultural activities is 74.2%(5,362,000 ha). The lowland area alone, which is the most fertile, occupies 16.1%(1,165,000 ha)- 690,000 ha are inland valley swamps (IVS), 130,000 ha are theBolis and the Mangrove swamps occupy 200,000 ha. It should be noted thatthese vast cultivable land areas are not only owned by the public sector- a large
proportion is being owned by small-holder farmers. Most recent projections from
the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security (MAFFS) indicate thattilling of 533,400 ha of land will achieve 80% of rice sufficiency level in Sierra
Leone by 2010, but also 1,584 tractors and 2,438 power tillers would be needed.
This is not enough- it can only increase wage employment of the labour force inhandling machineries, though. Besides, it targets the production of only one of
6 | Goals of Sustainable Agriculture in Sierra Leone

the major food crops in Sierra Leone. Some essential questions that should firstcome in one's mind when undertaking such ventures include:
1) Can mechanized farming alone provide nation-wide year-round consumptionof locally produced food crops in Sierra Leone?
2) Is rice the only cereal/food crop consumed in Sierra Leone?
3) Are small-holder farmers targeted in the extensification (commercialization)framework?
4) If so, are the machines/technology provided acceptable and accessible by all
farmers?
5) If small-holder farmers are important, how can they cope with the changing
climate in the absence of capacity building?
The public sector agricultural policy and other development programmes might
be missing answers to these questions. Notably, even if 100% of small-holder
farmers have access to tractors and power tillers, the directions in which seasonalchanges are going, will put the use of these supplies to a state of 'helplessness', if
capacity building in the area of climate change adaptation and agricultural
innovations is not enforced.

The ATPS-sponsoredResearch on Climate
Change Adaptation
A research was conducted on behalf of theAfrican Technology Policy Studies (ATPS)
Network between December 2009 andOctober 2010 on climate change impacts on
small-holder agriculture and the adaptive
capacity of Sierra Leonean farmers to respond to such impacts. It was in a bid tocontribute to the development of robust adaptation policy that would be
streamlined into national and local development programmes for enhanced
agricultural productivity and socio-economic growth in Sierra Leone. The
research targeted 500 small-holder farmers across the four agro-climatic regionsin the whole of Sierra Leone. This was done using the multi-stage cluster
sampling procedure and 10 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). The findings
Goals of Sustainable Agriculture in Sierra Leone | 7

revealed quite interesting, but challenging issues that need public attention. Data
structures transformed into a policy brief were developed from issues centeringon: (a) effective indigenous and emerging technologies and innovations forclimate change adaptation; (b) behavioural changes towards climate change
adaptation measures at individual and institutional levels; (c) state of capacity
building of the farming communities in Sierra Leone to adapt to climate change
impacts; (d) state of climate change and climate variability across agro-climatic
regions in Sierra Leone, (e) linkages between climate change and health, and theimplications on food security and local economic growth, and (f) farmers'
recommendations for building climate change resilience at the state and national
levels in Sierra Leone.

Emerging Issues from theFindings and implications for
Agricultural Production
Small-holder farmers in Sierra Leone havebeen reportedly affected by slow and low
returns from their farming activities because:> They have low adaptive capacity
Small-scale farmers cannot attain yearto respond to unstable climatic shocks
round food sufficiency status under the present
during their farming seasons;climate change circumstance in Sierra Leone without
capacity building & other adaptation measures.
> There is complete neglect of the adoptionof science and technology because farmers cannot afford for utility, and> Indigenous innovations are under-utilised and highly devalued.
Climate Change impact, as revealed from the study, is no longer a story
especially in terms of its linkage with health, agricultural development and socioeconomic rejuvenation in Sierra Leone. Indigenous farmers, who have been
considered as aliens to the emergence of climate change and its impacts, haveacknowledged that the occurrence of climatic events such as rainfall,temperature and cold is no longer normal as before, and most of these events
have been erratic over the past two to three years. This has caused abrupt andunstable shifts in start-of-farming dates in the local farming calendars- as
agricultural activities in the country are injected by rainfall and mild temperatures.
Small-holder farmers have therefore been reportedly affected by slow and low
8 | Goals of Sustainable Agriculture in Sierra Leonereturns from their farming activities especially as a result of: (i) low adaptive
capacity to respond to unstable climatic shocks during their farming seasons, (ii)complete neglect of adopting science and technology in farm practices because
farmers cannot afford for utility, and (3) under-utilisation and high devaluation ofindigenous innovations. Small-holder farmers can therefore not produce more toraise their social and economic status amidst of pools of responsibilities such as
caring for the sick, paying for learning materials and school charges, responding
to external anomalies, etc- a reason why poverty is tangential among small-holder
farmers. State actors, donors, NGOs/CSOs, the private sector, academia,
science experts, etc, therefore need to take these issues very seriously. In
particular, specific issues which came out strongly in the research and therefore
need urgent attention were the gradual experience of climate extremes, somecrops almost reaching their tolerant limits, food shortage and low animal
productions, and limited capacity building, etc.
Phenomenal changes in climatic parameters such as temperature, rainfall andcold are already being felt by farmers in Sierra Leone. Both meteorologicalweather and perceived farmers' observations show that temperatures are alreadyaround the threshold of the tolerance limit of crops, animals and humans.
Temperatures are already showing up around an average of 280C. Meaning
major food crops such as rice, palm oil and cacao will be in danger if no urgent
adaptation and mitigation measures are taken. Already farmers in the savannah
woodlands region are experiencing a mixture of temperature and cold in extreme
conditions. Rainfall is reportedly no longer stable across all agro-climatic regionsin the country and this has been experienced in the past two to three years. As aresult, crop failures, pest and disease proliferations, frequent animal deaths,
hunger and low economic returns are presently the order in the indigenous
farming system in Sierra Leone. Small-scale farmers cannot attain year-roundfood sufficiency status under the present climate change circumstance in Sierra
Leone without capacity building & other adaptation measures.
Capacity building to respond to agricultural failures due to uneven climatic eventswas also observed to be crucial for small-holder agriculture in Sierra Leone. The
capacity of small-holder farmers to adapt to climate change impacts has beenvery low. Indigenous weather predictions were mapped out from the findings as
the most widely used methods farmers have been adopting to meet theirseasonal planting requirements. Meanwhile, most farmers confessed that these
Goals of Sustainable Agriculture in Sierra Leone | 9are past events that no longer work in recent years under the present
erratic/unstable nature of climatic events across their specific agro-climatic
regions. Also, even though some farmers are already aware of climate-related
information such as weather, tree planting and planting dates, the importance ofsuch information are not adequately diffused across the agro-climatic zones anddigested for local use. In fact they are regional-specific and mainly from a single
source (the radio). Small-holder farmers were also observed to be constrained by
low adaptation strategies/ assistances across the agro-climatic regions. For
instance the supply of seed rice was identified as the highest form of assistance,but only 30% of farmers (24% of which are from the rain forest region) have beenreached so far. Other assistances are of very low importance in terms of supply
and impacts.
The change in climate patterns and low adaptive capacity of small-holder farmers
have been coupled with climate-related disease burden resulting to less yields
and low economic returns from small-scale agriculture in Sierra Leone. Highepisode of malaria, yellow fever, diarrhea and cholera have bordered farmers
across the country. Pest infestations/infections on food crops and animals are on
the other hand high. Mapping a linkage between climate change impacts on
health, food self-sufficiency and local economic growth reveals that the burden ofclimate-related diseases on small-holder farmers will lead to a 30% decrease ineconomic returns from agriculture, compared to a situation of no expenditure on
health. In addition, meeting nationwide food self-sufficiency under the present
circumstance as revealed from the findings would be a herculean task if noadaptation to climate change impacts takes place. Only an average proportion of
1% of farmers agreed on year-round food self-sufficiency from reserves madefrom produce; and 45% (the highest proportion) reported on feeding on reserved
food for only 3-5 months in the year.
Building on already established work in Sierra Leone can be the fastest way ofaddressing risks and uncertainties resulting from climate-related repercussions
on agricultural development and economic growth. Desk reviews show that there
is already an established policy on Science and technology. This policy makes
agriculture, food security and allied industries as the top-most priorities; andrecognizes that they have the potential to increase outputs on crops, livestockand marine resources if science and technology could be mainstreamed in theirdevelopment. Areas such as environment, whose ignorance can militate against
10 | Goals of Sustainable Agriculture in Sierra Leone

efforts to reduce climate change impacts, are also emphasized in the S&T policyin Sierra Leone. Furthermore, frantic effort is seen in the S&T policy formulation,
as it tends to capture indigenous technology by suggesting upgrading andmodernizing such technology so that it can better serve the needs of the society.
Meanwhile, in practice this policy was dormant as a result of lack of proper
coordination between responsible sectors that would otherwise help reduce
vulnerability in the area of climate change, climate variability and impacts on
agricultural development and socio-economic growth in the country. Without
proper coordination between sectors, the adoption of science and technology,
acceptability and valuation of indigenous innovations, and capacity building in
the area of climate change impacts, national efforts for food self-sufficiency andsecurity will be far from meeting targets. Meanwhile, attempts to promotescience-led technologies in agriculture, should not only look for outputs in termsof consumer wants and GDP growth, but rather fulfill the needs of indigenous
people.

The Way Forward
Farms should not be looked at as single
entities that focus on consumer-driven
increase in yields/outputs. Otherwise
neglecting essential elements such as
indigenous needs and capacity building
may jeopardize efforts to reduce shocks,
food insecurity and poverty.
The key question that needs answer here is, “how should we develop a robust
policy on climate change adaptation and sustainable agriculture in Sierra
Leone?” It was clearly noted from the findings that responding to climate change
impacts on agriculture requires well articulated and coordinated actions.
Neglecting essential elements such as responding to indigenous needs andcapacity building (both in terms of knowledge/training on climate change anddevelopment of cost effective technology), may greatly militate against efforts to
reduce shocks, food insecurity and poverty. The public sector and its partners
should therefore avoid thinking of agricultural production only in effort to increase
agricultural exports. Thus the need of adopting the “System Thinking” approachis essential. Individuals, firms, policy-makers, etc. should look at farms in terms ofGoals of Sustainable Agriculture in Sierra Leone | 11

“Systems”. They should focus on inter-relationships between elements on thefarm and patterns of change rather than the elements alone.
There is need for collaborated efforts by the national science and technology
council of Sierra Leone (NaSTEC), the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food
Security (MAFFS), the meteorological department, poverty-/Science andtechnology- oriented institutions/NGOs, national and international agencies, etc
to pool resources and promote research and development in the country. In
particular, the adoption of agro-meteorological technology should be essential totest the climatic requirements of crops across the country to identify crop
suitability in each of the agro-climatic regions.
A shift in the agro-climatic regions might have occurred. It is recommended thatthe meteorological department, statistics office, the agriculture ministry, World
Food Programme (WFP) and FAO be engaged in bid to develop new agroecological zones based on observed climatic variability. The meteorologicaldepartment is key, but has low technical and human capacities to carry out
effective and efficient meteorological data collection; the institution's capacity
therefore needs to be built in terms of training and provision of modern agrometeorological equipments that would be relocated in each of the agro-climatic
regions for weather observations.
There is need to develop a science and technology communications strategic
framework in the country. In particular, expert institutions such as the National
Council of Science and Technology, African Technology Policy Studies (ATPS)
Network and the National Telecommunication Commission (NATCOM) shouldplay a leading role in this process. Specifically, the framework must include theformation of an advocacy committee to promote the adoption of science andtechnology for full-scale mainstreaming in national and sectoral developmentwith specific emphasis on spurring small-scale agricultural development. In
addition the framework should include the formation and networking of early
warning committees in each agro-climatic region that would be linked directly tosmall-holder farmers for improved viability of their agricultural produces. The
committee must include the media, meteorologists, and farmers' representatives
locally based in each region; and should be coordinated by the National Early
Warning Committee.
12 | Goals of Sustainable Agriculture in Sierra Leone

Innovations/technologies for climate change resilience are very uncommon
across the country. Meanwhile few indigenous and emerging
technologies/innovations were identified in the coastal plains and rainforest.
Improvement on such innovations should be made and diffused across thecountry. The agricultural sector (including research institutions), NaSTEC, etc
should link with the National Farmers' Federation of Sierra Leone to further
identify new and cost-effective innovations/technologies that farmers would be
willing to adopt for food security/self-sufficiency and local economic growth.
HYVs and other hybrids (which are drought and disease-resistant) should be
introduced at a large and faster rate to small-holder farmers across the country.
Capacity building on climate change is very essential and should be done in asustainable manner. Farmers should be trained on farm and other practices thatwould help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (which will otherwise create
cyclic but negative impacts on the farming systems). In addition, adaptation of
the educational curriculum (especially in science courses) should be made byincorporating some form of education on causes of climate change and impacts.
Capacity building in terms of technical assistances such as supplies andintroduction of post-harvest technologies are also very crucial in small-holder
agricultural production and commercialization. Meanwhile an attitude-towardbahaviour model was adopted to gain farmers perception on possible andacceptable adaptation measures for climate change resilience in the country.
The national priorities that were identified include: (a) introducing high yielding
varieties (b) value addition/ access to market finance (c) provision of food storage
facilities, and (d) constant monitoring of water qualities. Regional-specificpriorities are available upon demand from the research team.
Massive campaigns on the climatic factors that encourage the prevalence of
these diseases must be effected. In addition, public health policies shouldincorporate discount rates of treatment for highly agriculture-oriented smallholder farmers. They should be encouraged with subsidies to increase theirearning powers to tackle such externalities.
Recommendations for further research have also been identified. In-country andinternational support for such research should be made to track progress inGoals of Sustainable Agriculture in Sierra Leone | 13

effectiveness of climatic data collections, improvements in the low adaptive
capacity of small-holder farmers to tackle climate-related impacts on theirfarming activities, as well as technology and innovation diffusions across theagro-climatic regions in the country, etc. The need for specific research on theburden of diseases on the farming population, by calculating and documenting
the Disability Adjustment Life Year is also paramount.
Funds for the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) should not only
be directed towards research on emissions of greenhouse gases. The
implementation of NAPA should ensure that funds are allocated for research on
climate change impact on small-holder farming, as well as mitigation benefits forsmall-holder agricultural commercialization. The effort to build the quadruple
helix by ensuring that climate-sensed programmes build coherence between
policy makers, science experts, the private sector actors and civil society actors
for stronger and more sustainable adaptation programme of action must be
made and achieved. .

References
Schär, C. et al. (2004): 'The role of increasing temperature variability in European
summer heatwaves', Nature 427: 332-336, doi: 10.1038/nature02300
Warren, R. et al (2006): 'Understanding the Regional Impacts of Climate Change'.
Available at: http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/working_papers/twp90.pdf

14 | Goals of Sustainable Agriculture in Sierra Leone

The African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) is a multidisciplinary network of researchers, private sector actors andpolicy makers promoting the generation, dissemination, use andmastery of science, technology and innovation (ST&I) for African
development, environmental sustainability and global inclusion.
ATPS intends to achieve its mandate through research, capacity
building and training, science communication/dissemination andsensitization, participatory multi-stakeholder dialogue,knowledge brokerage, and policy advocacy.

African Technology
Policy Studies Network
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ISBN: 978-9966-030-05-4