2022 Orange Social Venture Prize winner, Osman Yaah has opined that Sierra Leone is not serious about agriculture but yet its people want a bag of rice to be as cheap as a loaf of bread.

The young passionate innovator stated on his Facebook that If agriculture were to get the same political support and financial investment as the mining sector or politics, agriculture would be capable of providing more decent jobs and filling millions more stomachs with nutritious meals.

He further opined that In the minds of many African youths, a farmer is someone like their parents, an old and poor man job doing backbreaking labour in the fields and getting little to show for it.

“Agriculture is not glamorous. It suffers from entrenched negative perceptions. Nonetheless, agriculture is the engine driving many African economies.

Despite the negative perceptions, the agricultural sector employs as much as 60% of Africa’s labour force, according to the Africa Economic Outlook Report.The World Bank estimates that African agriculture and agribusiness could be worth $1 trillion by 2030.” he concluded.