{"id":13830,"date":"2022-07-12T15:21:56","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T15:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.slhc-uk.org\/?p=13830"},"modified":"2022-07-12T15:21:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T15:21:59","slug":"sierra-leone-seeks-to-open-and-operate-storage-cold-rooms-in-every-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.slhc-uk.org\/?p=13830","title":{"rendered":"SIERRA LEONE SEEKS TO OPEN AND OPERATE STORAGE COLD ROOMS IN EVERY DISTRICT."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Speaking at the ongoing COP26 Climate conference in Glasgow, Sierra Leone\u2019s minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Dr. Abu Karim, has revealed today that the government of Sierra Leone aims to open and operate cold rooms in every district to help crop and fish farmers increase their incomes reduce food food wastage and improve the national economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Minister Karim was speaking at the ongoing COP26 UN conference on climate change which entered its 4th day today 04\/11\/2021.
The Minister was taking part in a roundtable presentation on the multifaceted subject of Global Energy Alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The presentation which took place in the COP26 Blue Zone Studio was tailored to look at different angles of interrelated endeavours with a symbiotic interplay between Climate Change, Agriculture and Energy harnessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In answering a question on how Sierra Leone\u2019s partnership with organisations like \u2018the New Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet\u2019 would feature in the agricultural sector in Sierra Leone, here is part of what Dr. Karim had to say: \u201cAgriculture is still the backbone of Sierra Leone\u2019s economy, contributing about half of the GDP\u201d. The minister then went on to observe that \u201cin spite of significant improvements made in the sector, agriculture is still mostly rain-fed, productivity is low and there is minimal agro-processing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Karim however pointed out that in spite of enduring challenges in the agricultural sector, the Sierra Leone government \u201ccan centre its needs in partnership with the Alliance\u201d through \u201cthe country-led approach\u201d.
This, the minister explained, is possible because the Alliance is not just focused on electricity access but also on job creation, investment growth and agricultural expansion. \u201cThese are all areas that align perfectly with government\u2019s strategic goals for general food sufficiency, enhanced incomes and improved livelihood\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Karim also said that without adequate access to electricity \u201cmore than 50% of Sierra Leoneans who rely on Agriculture would be unable to increase their yields through modern irrigation methods and they would not be able to embark on agricultural processing to increase their incomes or utilise cold storages to prevent food wastage\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister Karim expressed confidence that through government\u2019s partnership with the Alliance they could deploy renewable energy to help small holder farmers become \u201cmore climate resilient through reduced reliance on rain-fed agriculture thereby increasing their incomes using solutions like solar water pumps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister Karim emphasised the point that using \u201ca multitude of solutions such as irrigation combined with availability of cold storage, agro-processing and market access interventions to support crop diversification\u201d the expansion into cash crops, fruits and certain kinds of vegetables, \u201cmay improve diets as well as incomes for farmers\u201d,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister concluded by underlining that \u201cPartners such as the Alliance can support government\u2019s efforts to extend electricity to power these cold chain facilities or test and deploy innovative technologies and business models to ensure Sierra Leoneans who are engaged in the fisheries and fruit sectors have access to affordable cold storage solutions to increase their incomes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The COP26 which ends on Friday 12 November will continue tomorrow with Sierra Leone raising the Green White and Blue not only in the SALONE COP26 PAVILION but on every important front from which the country has been embarrassingly absent for all this while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdulai Braima
information.attache@uk.slhc.gov.sl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking at the ongoing COP26 Climate conference in Glasgow, Sierra Leone\u2019s minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Dr. Abu Karim, has revealed today that the government of Sierra Leone aims to open and operate cold rooms in every district to help crop and fish farmers increase their incomes reduce food food wastage and improve the national…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.slhc-uk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.slhc-uk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.slhc-uk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.slhc-uk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.slhc-uk.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.slhc-uk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13833,"href":"https:\/\/blog.slhc-uk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13830\/revisions\/13833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.slhc-uk.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.slhc-uk.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.slhc-uk.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}