AGRO for COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT and EMPOWERMENT (ACDE)-SIERRA
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For the period January-December, 2023 ACDE-SL carried out the following activities:


Agriculture

  • Community Stakeholders engagement- Held engagements with key community stakeholders. The stakeholders among others include chiefs, Women Farmers Group Local Council (LC) authorities, Ministry of Agriculture officials, the youths (young men and women)

  • Strengthen of existing women farmer groups and formation of new ones- ACDE-SL supported and strengthened existing women farmer groups that have long been formed or established. ACDE-SL also supported the formation of new Women farmer groups:

  • Mobilization of rural women in farming- The organisation held several mobilization sessions for Women farmer groups.

  • Sensitization meeting and information sharing- The organization held several sensitization meetings with existing women farmer groups and new farmers.

  • Capacity building (Training)– Several trainings in agriculture during the year under review were conducted. The trainings focused on pre-planting, planting, post-planting, climate resilience, and e-learning.

  • Facilitation of registration with Ministry of Agriculture- Facilitated the registration of Women Farmers Group with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in Sierra Leone.

  • Feedback meetings- ACDE-SL held quarterly follow-up meetings with Women farmer groups and other relevant stakeholders to discuss the status/ progress of activities implemented and lessons learnt.

  • Monitoring and supervision– ACDE-SL carried out bi-weekly monitoring visits to the project sites and supervised the implementation of some of the activities.



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IMPACTS

Social

  • Base on the strengthening of the groups, mobilization and sensitization, the Women farmers are now able to address some problems among themselves, share experience on best farming practices that can be rolled out to other communities

Economic

  • As a result of ACDE-SL intervention in agriculture, the rural Women in those communities now see agriculture as a means of self-employment

  • Women farmers received trainings in various agricultural practices and enablers. Those trainings increase their agricultural production and productivity which in turn leads to increase in revenue

  • Women farmers now able to organize community trade fair and create market linages for their product which will increase their volume of sales and hence increase in revenue.
Challenges
  • Lack of capital to finance investment in rural agriculture

  • Lack of modern farm tools and equipment.

  • Lack of improved variety of seedlings and other agricultural inputs.
  • Poor road network leading to the farming sites.

  • Land tenure system remains a key challenge for women to acquire land.

  • Lack of agricultural vocational skills

  • Lack of literacy and numeracy skills

  • Poor commitment by some group members

  • Low support from some men
Lessons Learnt

Some men of working age in the communities refuse to support the women because of the opportunities believed to have been accorded to them such as programmes centered around the empowerment of women

Experience sharing on innovation from individual members of women farmer groups

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