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Pujehun Food Security Project

Country:  Sierra Leone

Project Title:  Pujehun Food Security Project

Project Designation:  1507

The Need:

Sierra Leone is gradually recovering from a 10-year civil conflict (1991-2001) that led to the death of more than 25,000 people, the displacement of 1.2 million others, disruption of agricultural production, significant food shortages, and rapid deterioration in all sectors of its economic and socio-political life. In 2003 Sierra Leone was ranked the lowest country in the world according to the UNDP’s Human Development Index.

The Pujehun district was selected due to the fact that food poverty is highly prevalent. Most households are faced with inadequate food supply due to low production and very low income and lack of farm inputs. The civil war in Sierra Leone also exposed many people to poor living conditions similar to those prevailing at the beginning of the war in 1991. In general terms, there is a low presence of humanitarian organizations in the district that are addressing the issue of food insecurity.

Farm sizes are generally small and enhanced production is report as low. The baseline survey conducted demonstrated that crop damage due to pest infestations is a key problem in the chiefdoms and this has caused serious seed loss over the years. Therefore, the project will address these problems by providing sufficient seed, tools and training for beneficiaries on Farmer Field School Techniques to empower them to improve on their farming practices in order to increase productivity/yield within the 3-year project time frame.

This food security project aims at ensuring household food security in six communities in two chiefdoms in Pujehun District in a 3-year time frame. The project starts May 2009 and ends April 2012, targeting 1,350 household heads as direct beneficiaries and an estimated 7,200 indirect beneficiaries.

The project is set to achieve the following specific objectives: increased agricultural production, productivity/yield and crop diversification for targeted farm families, reduced crop loss in target communities due to pest and disease infestation and flood, improved seed protection and increased knowledge on nutrition issues in targeted communities after three years.

1. Each year 450 beneficiary households are supplied with seed rice, groundnut seed, cassava cuttings, potato vines, vegetable seeds and tools.

2. Each year six Chiefdom Agricultural Animators (CAA) trained on Farmer field school techniques and pass training on to targeted farmers.

3. Each year Lead Farmers trained.

4. Each year two hectares of inland valley swamps are developed.

5. Each year Nutrition Volunteers trained twice. Each Nutrition Volunteer completed door-to-door visits educating targeted households on food diversification.

WRC expects to see 40% annual increase in the quantity of groundnut, cassava and potato produced by each farmer targeted; increase in rice yield of each farmer targeted from 2 bushels to at least 20 bushels per household. As well WRC expects to see another 40% increase in the proportion of households eating two meals per day during the hunger period (July-Sept); 30% increase in the number of food groups being eaten; and at least 80% of households that received vegetable seed packages are regularly eating vegetables.

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