January 29, 2025
 

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Seed Certification Agency (SLeSCA) has finalized the country’s draft National Seed Policy. The draft will now be submitted to the cabinet for approval.

With financial and technical support from AGRA, TASAI Inc., in collaboration with MAFS and SLeSCA, convene a technical meeting from 11th to 12th December 2024 at Atlantic Lumley Hotel in Freetown, Sierra Leone, bringing together key stakeholders in the seed sector. The objective of the meeting was to finalize the draft by addressing the outstanding issues and updating some of the text in the document. The stakeholders were from public institutions including MAFS, SLeSCA, the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI), Ernest Bai Koroma University of Science and Technology (EBKUST), and Njala University; and private institutions including seed companies and the National Farmers’ Federation of Sierra Leone.

Prior to the workshop, the AGRA and TASAI teams met the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, together with the Permanent Secretary and the Chief Agricultural Officer. In addition, the team convened meetings with the Executive Director of SLeSCA and his senior staff, the Director General of the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI), and the Managing Director of Seed Tech International, one of the private seed companies in the country.

Website: http://tasai.org

Published: February 18, 2025