Endowed with diamond, rutile, bauxite, cacao, coffee, and a vast land of agricultural potential, most Sierra Leoneans still live below € ½ per day, some goes to bed without, and their life expectancy remains amongst the lowest. Efforts are being made by many donors to address the hunger and poverty situation in Sierra Leone with special emphasis on agriculture, but the journey to success still seemed farfetched.

In order to complement the efforts of the central government and donor partners, YAD is currently supporting 400 farm families with about 3250 beneficiaries in the rural areas, mainly youth and female-headed households. Our food security approach does not only help the farmers to grow what they eat for the day, but it also adds value to their products and leads them to the central market so that they can realize much out of their labour. We do so from diverse fronts as we grow various crops, including vegetables, cassava and rice. With the support of donor partners, we have established a large cassava and rice processing centre in the eastern region. Located at Jeko Yeiya, near Sendumei town in Niawa chiefdom, the centre intends to mill all rice and process all cassava produced in the region to add value to it before marketing.

Also, we are supporting youth groups in Kenema municipality to get engaged in urban agriculture and vegetable gardening which could enable them attain economic and food security. Our agriculture and food security project focuses mainly on the provision of basic farming skills, tools, improved seed rice, storage and modern rice and cassava processing machinery, capacity building in climate adaptation,  simple calculation and marketing skills, which reduces labor by 50% and increases productivity by up to 300%.