The recent We Yus broadcast made by the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) covering Cocoa Block Farming claimed to be conducted by the Produce Monitoring Board (PMB) is a near scam. The presenter showed cocoa seedlings, nurseries in Kono, other places and in particularly Levuma, Kenema District.
Levuma is the diamond mining town and home of the Executive Chairman of the PMB which is not known for crop farming.
This broadcast is yet another show case by some government institutions to deceive this nation and all its viewers or listeners in the print and electronics media.
In most of the times, officials misinform the populace by contracting the media to tell stories to cover up their questionable performances and bring forth their cosmetic handiwork knowing well that no investigation could be underway to attest to the facts on the ground
In this case, the deceit arose from the 8 O: Clock to 9 pm a stage-managed skit was broadcast to show Block Farming. There where no huge outlay of a cleared farm land through the camera. We could not see a measure say 100 to 200 hectares of land, nor did we see any large scale nusery of seedlings. However, the audio visual item showed and talked of Block Farming conducted by the PMB .
Sierra Leone Produces about 18,000 tons of Cocoa which is grossly insignificant by African or world standard.
Block Farming is more of a system of technical method of farm outlay and management on a larger scale. Block Farming is only prominent in the Moa Woma southern Kenema and somewhere near Bo/Kenema highway. This is conducted by the Lebanese/ Welt Hunger Heifi. aid.
Our investigation indicates that the chairman has been busy trying to do some private cocoa plantation for himself in Levuma using an undisclosed resources.
Invariably though, that video show does not merely fall within the core activities of the PMB as claimed
The PMB is a state institution under the Ministry of Trade& Industry It is positioned to promote the Production, Processing and Marketing of all produce in the country. Unfortunately, this institution is grossly incapacitated to meet most of the bench marks in performance. This is because, apart from Cocoa and Coffee all other produce are not captured in their books, even though these crops are being exported through other means by some informal business organisations . As a result, the much needed cash for government is not collected but runs down the drainage pipes.
There are a number of these crops that are either smuggled or traded after some form of value addition is applied.
We have sorghum, cashew, kola nut, honey, palm oil, rubber, sesame Bennie, ginger, all going across the borders unofficially. One reason for this is that, the PMB is yet to provide the International Quality Processing Standards to enable the staff examin and monitor their value chain. It should be observed that the International Commodity Market have Standards to follow when countries export such goods.
The PMB is such an institution that is mandated to foster the produce trade and revert to making sure that the US Dollar proceeds from the sale of our produce are repatriated to this country through the Bank of Sierra Leone.
That never happens and instead exporters use these monies from the sales to buy large consignment of rice or building materials and import them to the country thereby creating foreign currency shortages.
This situation is condoned by the PMB because somewhere down the line, the present management rejected or have limited ideas in adopting the regulatory instruments. The former staff of the institution were summarily chased out by the chairman. Their project legacy provided very strigent types of regulatory instruments such as certificates, forms and licenses in order to mitigate these anomalies.
It was surprising to learn that influences from certain businessmen had to forestall the project. Otherwise the new sets of staff did not see it that way. That is why the sector is facing serious challenges which is described as a free for all system. This has left the produce buyers to deliberately decalibrate the measuring equipment in order to cheat the farmers.
Another worst scenario has even being the PRICE. The lack of co-ordination between the PMB and its peripheral organisations has further exacerbated those situations.This lack of progress and the inability to judiciously carryout its mandate has hindered its sister institution called the Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Company (SLPMC) located at Tengbe Town to suffer in the hands of the foreign buyers. The SLPMC cannot match the Lebanese produce buyers .
Here is the case… the PMB announces government price for each Produce down to the value chain. The expectations are that, those prices called the Indcative Price (IP) should be levied at a level playing field. But because of the weaknesses in the PMB, some(foreign exporters)buyers attract the farmers by paying more for their produce above the IP. However, they doctor the scales inorder to cheat the farmers. The PMB on the other hand has Produce Monitors and Examiners all over the place but are never really forthcoming. ⁶
The SLPMC if protected by the vigilance of the PMB staff could enable them compete with the giant external buyers. Bedside it is the SLPMC that should import rice through the proceeds of our produce LONTA!
