Sierra Leone land investment deals and agricultural investments

The collapse of the national infrastructure of Sierra Leone during the Civil War has been a major cause for the stagnation of growth in Sierra Leone. The region has a diverse range of farms which are manually worked by smallholders and these farms tend to involve a range of crops which are grown on swamps and fields. The negative growth of Sierra Leone during the war converted the country into an importer of food grains. Before the war Sierra Leone was an exporter of food grains.
Currently, there are numerous varieties of food products which are consumed by people in Sierra Leone but the food products such as eggs, rice, and fruits are imported from countries which offer their food products at a low cost in the local farm market. The local farm products in Sierra Leone which are offered in the market are imported from various other countries at a low cost as compared to the cost at which the local farm products are offered. The farmers are not directly connected to the value chain and these results in hindering the growth of local farmer through the procedure of agriculture. The smallholder farmers were promoted to increase the capabilities of the farms and reduce the post-harvest losses, which provide a better understanding of the market (1) . The program provided improved connection to the smallholders, value chains and markets. The program offered by various business centres which have been promoted by the government help in developing equipments and material for post-harvest losses. The World Bank provides funding for improving the feeder roads (2).
In 2009, the National Sustainable Agriculture Development Plan was signed by the Sierra Leone government and the objective of the agreement was to increase the contribution of the national economy through the method of agriculture and commercialize agricultural sector. The main aim was to promote productive capacities of the farmers and also the development of Agri- business through large and small scale farms. The focus was on agriculture which provided commodities, and the plan also aimed to provide access to markets and offered value additional of agricultural commodities. A selected range of agricultural produce such as rice, palm oil, cassava, fisheries, cocoa and non- timber forest products were added to the list for improving the production.

Recently, the agricultural development in the region of western Africa was supported by the policies to protect foreign direct investments, which was designed, mainly, for overall economic growth of the region through agricultural processes. Agriculture of Sierra Leone is based on small scale farmers and therefore, there is a need to provide support for improving the efforts of the small scale farmers.

The government promoted investments of foreign investors in the region to ensure the agricultural land investments practice was directly connected to the value chain. Commercialization of agriculture was important for labour saving and improving the machinery related to agriculture. The government started programs to inform the global community about the rich resources available in Sierra Leone, which attracted investors to invest in the region. Also the political structure depicted an improved picture of the state, which was now backed by stability and secure systems in land acquisition.

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