WFP supports 83 farmers to plant rice and vegetables at Mathonkara, Tonkolili District.

On Monday, 1 November 2021, United Nations Resident Coordinator Mr Bababtunde Ahonsi visited a ten-hectare plot of farmland at Mathonkara Village in Tonkolili District, during his three-day mission to Magburaka and Makeni.

Accompanied by WFP’s Deputy Representative Ms Yvonne Forsen, the farmers reported that with the intervention of WFP and the Ministry of Agriculture, they now plant rice, legumes and vegetables all year long, instead of “illegal crops”.

Fifty-four young men and twenty-nine women in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic were trained in climate-adaptive agronomic practices. They were empowered to develop an abandoned inland valley swamp irrigation system, providing a sustainable food system for year-round food security.

The Youth Contractor at the project site, 27-year-old Mariatu Conteh said the project had enabled them to organize people in Mathonkara community into groups, and they are supported with tools and seeds to become self-reliant. She is a beneficiary of training to lead agricultural transformation in the village.

Pa Kapr Soya, the local village leader thanked the RC and his team for visiting. He commended WFP for their efforts in ensuring that the community attains food security. While they have enjoyed much support from the farming activity, the local leader requested help for a drying floor, a storage facility, and a rice mill.

The RC said he was encouraged by the efforts of the farmers in ensuring that they plant and eat what they grow. He also commended the Government of Sierra Leone and WFP for continuing to invest in life-changing agricultural programmes such as in Mathonkara.