By Jeneba A. Cobteh
Craving 4 Development, in collaboration with partners in Sierra Leone, hosted the 3rd edition of the Pan African symposium on agriculture, which started on the 5th December and ended on the 7th December 2022 at the Bintumani conference center in Freetown.
Pan African symposium on agriculture aims to set in motion an initiative that allows practical knowledge sharing, export readiness and exposure to systems, businesses, enablers and innovations, in order to build robust frameworks and agro- industrial companies with enhanced human capitalinterconnected networks of experts, well-structured and accessible markets and opportunities for sustained collaborations.
The pan African symposium brought 23 countries together including Sierra Leone with a focus on strengthening agri-food supply food chains in Africa with the vision to create a regional knowledge and partnership based platform for youth involving in agriculture sovereignty, as well as investments and connected supply chains in Africa.
Speaking with different vendors during the event, Hannah Elizabeth Tarwallie, Founder of Coffee Couriers Sierra Leone, stated that she started her coffee business in 2014 and that she was doing business both locally and internationally.
Rachel Mariama Bangura,Founder of J’ S Gara and Fabric Collection said she started in 2017 after she found out that people were going in for European way of dressing, adding even though people were not interested in Gara collections, but that she ensured to give the best of quality to Sierra Leone and the world.
Famata Bah, chairlady No:1 Green Famer,Kenemi District Fresh Garri, said she was proud to be an African woman who is interested in agriculture all her life, adding that she has employed 42 women.
One of the participants, Junisa Kallon,said he found the symposium session very interesting and stated that such opportunities are limited in Sierra Leone- to have young people together to learn about farming and agriculture and ways to add value to sustainable farming mechanism.
