The overall objective of the Rural Youth Development Organization – Sierra Leone’s (RYDO-SL) Farmers Training and Capacity Building Project, supported by Bread and Water for Africa®, (BWA) is to improve the farming and business skills of participants in the areas of food production, nutrition and entrepreneurship.
Through the program, this spring 75 smallholder farmers (45 female and 30 male) will receive training that will literally transform their lives, along with the lives of their children and even provide benefits to many others in their communities who will be purchasing their produce at local markets.
As we have seen over and over again during the past four years, the difference between what they are now able to produce on their small tracts of land averaging two acres (but some instances as tiny as less than one-tenth of an acre) compared to their harvests before the training is nothing short of remarkable.
We recently heard from RYDO-SL program director Joseph Kobba who reported on the impact the training has made in the lives of hundreds over the past few years, including those most recent graduates of the program.
Among them is Hawa Sillah, 22, who lives in the Kpetema community with her two children ages 4 and 2 years old.
Hawa, who has no formal education, had been living with her parents who are both traders, and now with the farming and business skills she received she is now able to follow in their footsteps selling her produce, including groundnuts (peanuts) and beans, at the local market.
“After receiving the training and support of funds, seeds and farming tools, she embarked on the sales of groundnuts by packing in plastic bags for hygiene,” Joseph reported. Today, “she is able to maintain her business and farming activities in the community.”
And as her business “continues to flourish,” he noted that Hawa has even been able to open an account at the Village Savings and Lending Association (VSLA) in Kpetema (called “Nyanbawo,” which Joseph told us means “Save Me” in the Mende language spoken in much of the country).
As for Hawa herself, “I appreciate the training and support, as my business is improving because I am using the business techniques I learned from the farming and business skill training program I attended.
“Thanks to RYDO-SL and BWA for conducting the training program in our communities. Before I was struggling to plan and trace my profit made but it is easier to keep records of my daily business.”
And based on her own personal success, she adds, “I am appealing for more training of traders in my community.”
Another recent graduate of the program is James Abu, 27, who lives in the Mokpendeh community and was struggling to start farming using traditional tools made by local blacksmiths “but was not getting much yield in his farm harvest,” says Joseph.
“Despite, or perhaps because of, his old farming knowledge and long experience he had gotten from his late father, he didn’t hesitate to adopt the new techniques gained at the farmers’ training.
“It didn’t take long for the results to come in: increased production compared to previous years.”
Since then, James is not keeping his success to himself.
“Already well-known within the Mokpendeh community, James has now become a real point of reference whose farming skills have influenced other farmers,” Joseph reported. “Thanks to his efforts and engagement, James increased the quality and quantity of his rice production by applying the training methods he was taught during the farmers and business management skills training seasons.”
James said the knowledge he gained in farming practices such as identification of his farm site, brushing, felling of trees, burning, planting, weeding and improved postharvest management practices for rice including seeds storage, that the training has helped him to have healthy rice seedlings and increase in his farm yields.
“Thanks to the higher incomes in 2024 fruitful harvest seasons,” James told us, “I had bought a plot of land in Bo City and five bundles of new corrugated iron sheets for a future house and also paid the school fees for my younger sister studying in Bo City.
“I am very thankful to God, RYDO-SL and Bread and Water for Africa® for the training and support. I promise to increase the production scale and make full use of the training and support I received.”
