Sierra Leone: nursing agriculture back to health

Sierra Leoneans love to eat rice. For them, rice is the food to live on. “It doesn’t matter what other food they eat, they must eat rice at least once a day before they can say they have eaten at all,” explains Umaru Fofana, editor of Politico, a Sierra Leonean newspaper. But now Joseph Sam Sesay, the minister in charge of agriculture, forestry and food security, wants his compatriots to loosen their relationship with rice. Over-reliance on it, Mr. Sesay believes, could affect the country’s food security goal. “I encourage our people to change their habit and alternate rice with other crops grown in the country.” By “other crops,” the minister is referring to yams, cassava and sweet potatoes.