By AlusineFullah Youth involvement in Agriculture is a way to RESCUE dwindling Sierra Leonean ECONOMY. Youth represent more than half of the population of Sierra Leone and can play a critical role in the future of agriculture, however they need support to unlock their potential. Empowering Sierra Leonean youth to invest in agriculture and food systems is key to achieving sustainable food security, reducing youth unemployment, combating distress migration, and making agriculture more efficient, sustainable, and resilient. But how can they play that critical role when each and every day they (kush smokers) are arrested and sent to prison? Sierra Leone’s sole psychiatric hospital, a renovated facility from the British colonial era, is swamped with young addicts brought in by families desperate for help.Sixty percent of the hospital’s admissions are Kush-related, said JusuMattia, acting medical superintendent and resident psychiatrist. What?! So appalling!! The topmost priority for H.E President Bio in his second term is to ensure Sierra Leone is food self-sufficient within the next five years. That is a great idea! But as a Sierra Leonean I am VERY doubtful how can the FEED SALONE PROJECT succeed when most of the youths are profoundly swimming in the ocean of Kush. For me it sounds impossible. Because for me, it is the youth who will actively have to go to those farms to work. The youths are the very ones who will have to drive those powerful farm machines. In many cases, it is the youth who will have to sit in a round table and draft ideas about the progress of agriculture. But if they are Kushly mad, who will? Except if you want to give a blind eye to it, but there is a profound nexus between agriculture and the youth. What memories do we have to fuel agricultural soul if it is not the memory of our youths? Honestly, if Sierra Leone is to be linked/ likened to agricultural body the youths are the heart. What is body without a heart? So in that case, the youths are very important in all developmental sectors especially agriculture. Kush – a cheap new illegal drug is ravaging communities in Sierra Leone. Medical staff in the capital Freetown says that 90% of the male admissions to the central psychiatric ward are due to Kush use. Sierra Leone, like many other African countries is breathing on the destructive consequences of drug abuse, with one particular drug called KUSH. As a journalist, to get firsthand information, I visited many places around the capital to actually see and feel how this menace (Kush) is destroying our young generation, the youth. COVID 19 disease is gone, the new disease is Kush. Their lives are mired in poverty and despair. “Kush” will offer them relief they hope, but the nirvana is fleeting and carries a grim price.The recently emerged drug is making terrible inroads among the young in Sierra Leone.On the edge of a rubbish tip in the capital Freetown, Mohamed (name changed), 25-year-old garbage picker, smoked a joint laced with ‘Kush’.For about an hour, he said, he would “meditate high meditation,” sleep, wake up and eat.And then, a short time later, do it all over again.”We smoke it the whole day,” he said.”I spend a lot of money on it every day — around 200 Leones,” or around $10: a small fortune in a country with average per capita income of under $500 a year. Nearby, Mohamed’s companions were crammed into a shack shrouded in Kush smoke, in the heart of a slum where children played among pigs and detritus. Magistrate Abu BakarrBangura of waterloo magistrate court remanded 52 accused persons for the smoking of Kush contrary to section 48(1) of the pharmacy and drugs act 2001. The accused persons were found in possession of Kush and Jamba and in a place used for smoking same in a particular settlement in waterloo. Those 52 above are just the tip of the ice berg. If those 52 youths are in the farms, there is great chance that Sierra Leone economy will boost. Youths are the primary productive human resource of socio-economic development. It is, therefore, essential to identify the roles of youth in mainstream development. Sierra Leonean youth are diverse in ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Such diversity necessitates customized initiatives to meet needs and activate their untapped potentials. If about 21.5% unemployed youths are gainfully involved in agriculture, there would be a rapid growth in the nation’s economy. Every youth has a role to play in any segment of agricultural/ food value chain. At the agricultural input supply level, youths can engage by supplying inputs in respect of agricultural practices of choice. For example, crop production inputs: seeds, buds, seedlings, chemicals, tools/equipment and machines; poultry production inputs: pen pages, feeders, water systems, feeds, chemicals and vaccines, crates; aquaculture inputs: culturing and holding tanks, water testing and treatment kits, fish seeds, fish feeds, weighing scales, harvesting nets, drugs and vaccines; to mention a few. All these inputs are most important to the success of agricultural production. Therefore, there are demands for them. Youth can also engage in agricultural productions, both consumables (foods – plant and animal production) and non-consumables (such as rubber, cottons). Areas that can be explore include, but not limited to: crop productions – maize, rice, beans, wheat, vegetables (green vegetables, tomatoes, pepper, onions, cabbage, cucumber, carrots, garden eggs etc.), yam, sweet potatoes and cassava ; tree crop plantations – palm tree, banana/plantain cocoa, rubber, coffee; animal productions – fish, poultry, piggery, ranching, snails, etc. Rice Value chain contributes to reducing poverty and achieving food and nutrition security, thereby improving livelihoods of farmers and other rice value-chain actors across the country. So, it is important to identify the parameters that would support the Feed Salone initiative by increasing the productivity and profitability of rice-based agrifood systems, while ensuring the sustainability of natural resources in the country. President Bio has declared agricultural transformation as a priority for his second term for jobs and wealth creation.
