Sierra Leone Sows Its First Wheat Hope in the Hills of Kabala
TAAT Experts monitoring the land preparation in Kabala
Sierra Leone: In the cool northern district of Kabala, where farmers know the rhythm of rice and cassava, the soil was turned today for something new: Sierra Leone’s first wheat demonstration trial.
The land preparation flag-off brought together the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) and partners, led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI), the Sierra Leone Seed Certification Agency (SLeSCA) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). For researchers, officials and onlookers, it marked the moment an idea became a field.
The seeds of this idea are two heat-tolerant wheat varieties, Imam and Borlaug 100, which carry a yield potential of 6–7 tons per hectare. Bred to cope with warmer conditions, they are being tested here to show whether wheat can earn a place in West Africa’s changing farmlands.
The Honourable Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr Isata Kamanda, welcomed the initiative as a credible pathway to deepening food systems resilience, in line with the President’s Feed Salone agenda. For a country working to feed itself with more of its own harvests, a new crop with strong yield potential offers fresh options for farmers and for the nation’s table.
The TAAT team is led by Dr Oluwatoyin Adetunji, TAAT Value Chain Specialist and Country Engagement Officer for Anglophone West Africa. He is joined by Dr Oluwasina Olabanji, former Director General of the Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI); Dr Zakari Turaki and Mr Usman Fusami, both of LCRI; and a host of researchers from SLARI.
The work continues tomorrow. On 29 October, the team moves to Rokupr, also in Northern Sierra Leone, for land preparation and planting of the two wheat varieties.
“For TAAT, the trial reflects a core commitment to facilitating African food system transformation: proving, field by field, that proven technologies can travel and take root. If the first plots thrive, Kabala and Rokupr may be remembered as the places where Sierra Leone’s wheat story began,” Dr Solomon Gizaw, Head of the TAAT Clearinghouse said.
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