[{"bbox": [96, 152, 1134, 525], "category": "Text", "text": "**Cassava** is a traditional staple crop in Sierra Leone: during lean season, households circumstantially, switch from rice to cassava, the country's second largest crop, with approx. 820.000 MT of annual production (2019); and 19% of agricultural value in the country. Products derived from cassava like gari flour, fufu and cassava flour are in high demand. Average yields of 10MT/ha are high for the region, but still below what could be achieved with improved varieties and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). For example, cassava yields in India are estimated at 25MT/ha. The market for the cassava stems/cuttings is disorganized with little assurance of quality or knowledge amongst farmers on variety selection for selected soil types. The value chain is more mature than others, with various models of sourcing using contracts. Farmers receive about 31% of profits; assemblers 15%; processors 31% and distribution 23%¹⁹. There is high competition, but only a few can live up to certification and export requirements which requires structure and traceability. Processing ranges from small-scale, home-milling activities that provide a quick source of income for households to a limited number of medium- to large sized operations attempting to commercialize processed cassava but struggle with organizing the supply side. Several projects support the cassava value chain, some with provision of free inputs and/or processing equipment, which sometimes ends up abandoned."}, {"bbox": [96, 536, 1134, 909], "category": "Text", "text": "Unlike the oil palm and cassava value chains, the **infant food** value chain is an emerging value chain in Sierra Leone. Infant food is a processed porridge of rice, beans, lentils, cowpeas, sesame, orange-fleshed sweet potato and others, packed in daily or weekly sized feeding packs. Most infant foods are imported and provided for free to health clinics; while the rural areas mostly produce homemade infant foods for their young children or resolve to cheap and poor nutrient dense options. There is a national market for 2,000 metric tonnes of complementary food and a further 1,000 metric tonnes for Liberia, as well as favourable trade agreements within the ECOWAS trade block²⁰. The value chain is characterized by limited access to raw materials (partly due to limited variety in production - for example, of roots, tubers and oil seeds, which are rarely marketed; as well as poor nutrition content in selected varieties²¹) and lack of access to affordable and safe equipment and recipes. No cooperatives exist dealing specifically with this value chain. A few small and medium infant food factories currently operate but nutritious, affordable choices are not available. Business planning and structured producer networks are required for a processor to ensure availability of raw material and food safety of the product, for example avoiding aflatoxin developing in stored grains or contamination during manufacturing. Few projects specifically support the value chain, though some actors have received extensive support."}, {"bbox": [96, 920, 702, 949], "category": "Text", "text": "**Cutting across** the value chains are the following key challenges:"}, {"bbox": [134, 961, 657, 988], "category": "Section-header", "text": "**A. Low productivity and poor agricultural practices.**"}, {"bbox": [96, 1000, 1134, 1425], "category": "Text", "text": "Farmers display limited adoption of improved varieties, partly due to low outreach by research institutions, limited extension services, and limited interaction between the two to provide farmers with advisory services and demonstrations on variety selection and cropping methods. Slash-and-burn techniques are widely practiced. Despite farmers having some awareness on the negative impacts of these practices, feasible alternatives are not provided to farmers (labour costs for weeding and/or prices for certified controlled herbicides are very high). Practices such as intercropping and agro-forestry are not widespread. Limited private sector extension services exist, even within out grower schemes. Furthermore, there are limited models available in the country for nursery operation, either at community-, input dealer- or research-level. This makes inputs difficult to access, and their quality difficult to ascertain. The lack of access to and how to manage and utilize inputs, especially for perennials, hampers the farmers' ability to reap adequate rewards from their investment, especially for perennial crops, thus limiting overall availability of produce on the market, especially of industry-demanded varieties. Farmers tend to grow the same crops with little diversification. **The selected value chains cannot be further commercialized, without addressing the inputs system.** Primary value addition and processing are largely done at farmer level, with limited quantities reaching the markets²². This follows **rudimentary production and processing methods**, both of which contribute negatively to human development (e.g. physical safety and food safety) and depletes environmental resource and in some cases contributes towards deforestation and biodiversity loss (e.g. firewood"}, {"bbox": [86, 1476, 1099, 1502], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁹ *Regional cassava value chains analysis in West Africa: Case study of Sierra Leone*, PPAAO/WAAPP, September 2024."}, {"bbox": [86, 1501, 572, 1525], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁰ Products are zero rated as 'essential social commodities'."}, {"bbox": [86, 1525, 933, 1550], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²¹ Nutritional varieties include yellow cassava, bio-fortified maize and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes."}, {"bbox": [86, 1549, 1144, 1647], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²² Information on how agricultural households sold crops for the 2015 Census was obtained at three levels, no sale, part sold and all sold. Only 3.3 per cent of agricultural households nationally said they sold all the produce from food crops. A significant proportion (46.8 per cent) said they sold part of the food crop produce while the majority (49.9 per cent) never sold any portion of their produce. \"*Sierra Leone 2015 Population and Housing Census: Thematic Report on Agriculture*\" (2015)"}, {"bbox": [1035, 1680, 1144, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 7 of 33"}]