almost 4 percent of arable lands are subject to sea water flooding during rainy season, is of medium fertility and suitable for rice cultivation if there is no salt intrusion; (iv) Bolilands account for 2 percent of arable lands are seasonally flooded plains of inherently low fertility and difficult to cultivate without proper machinery; (v) Riverine Grasslands, which account for about 2 percent of arable land are flooded during the rainy season, but otherwise fertile and suitable for rice cultivation. Table 1 below shows the constraints on the availability of arable land by ecology and the five rice ecosystems.

**Table 1: Availability of arable land by ecology**

|**Ecology**|**Ecosystem**|**Arable land area(ha)**|**% of Arable land**|
|---|---|---|---|
|Upland|Upland|4,300,000|80.23|
|Lowland|Inland Valley Swamp|630,000|11.75|
||Mangrove Swamp|200,000|3.73|
||Boliland|120,000|2.24|
||Riverain Grassland|110,000|2.05|
|**Total**||**5,360,000**|**100**|

Source: National Rice Development Strategy, Sierra Leone, 2009 According to the 2015 census, the majority (85.4 percent) of Sierra Leone households own or operate a crop farm. About 62 percent of agricultural households grow upland rice, while 31.6 percent of households cultivate lowland rice, which includes inland valley swamp, boliland, mangrove swamp and riverine ecologies. All-together, 93.6 percent of agricultural households grow either upland or lowland rice. Of the total land area of 3,244,214 ha under food crop production, 35 percent is under upland rice production, 17.3 percent is used for lowland rice cultivation, 10.6 percent for cassava cultivation, 9.2 percent for groundnut cultivation, 1.5 percent under sweet potato and 0.9 percent under maize cultivation. In total, about 1.5 million hectares were utilized for rice cultivation in 2015 (Table 2).

The Northern region cultivates the most upland rice with 13.1 percent of land cultivated, compared to the Eastern region (12.4 percent), Southern region (9.3 percent) and Western region (0.2 percent). A relatively lower proportion of land is used for lowland rice, with the Northern region recording the highest proportion of land under lowland rice cultivation (10.3 percent).

**Table 2: Sierra Leone Arable Land Area (ha) Utilization by Ecology and by District (2015)**

|**District**|**Upland**|**Boliland**|**IVS**|**Riverain**|**Mangrove**|**Total**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Bo|140,668|5,711|18,976|3,097|0|**168,452**|
|Bombali|60,368|10,547|19,697|1,552|0|**92,164**|
|Bonthe|75,694|2,008|6,519|7,029|6,201|**97,451**|
|Kailahun|161,140|0|15,367|0|0|**176,507**|
|Kambia|55,379|8,181|21,667|5,405|10,016|**100,648**|
|Kenema|137,132|0|26,038|0|0|**163,170**|
|Koianadugu|36,112|0|31,668|0|0|**67,780**|
|Kono|104,521|0|16,215|0|0|**120,736**|
|Moyamba|91,819|4,760|11,352|1,800|2,428|**112,159**|
|Port Loko|107,798|5,140|24,154|2,059|5,579|**144,730**|
|Pujehun|69,164|1,903|6,374|2,844|1,409|**81,694**|
|Tonkolili|119,754|15,158|33,873|1,550|0|**170,335**|
|Western Area|15,612|0|2,609|399|2,255|20,875|
|**National**|**1,175,161**|**53,408**|**234,509**|**25,735**|**27,888**|**1,516,701**|

Source: Sierra Leone, Ministry of Agriculture, 2015 11