Sierra Leone - Sustainable Agricultural Value-Chains Intensification for Growth (SAVIG) Project

Overview & Synopsis

Sustainable Agricultural Value-Chains Intensification for Growth (SAVIG) for Sierra Leone has the development objectives to enhance productivity, private investment, and job creation in select agriculture value chains. Components and Sub-components are as follows. Component 1 – Strengthening Climate-Smart Productivity: Sub-component 1.1 Support to Enhance Private Sector Investment in Input Supply will expand reliable supply of Early Generation Seed (EGS) for rice, maize, and cocoa through partnerships with the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI), establish licensing and transparent production schedules, strengthen the Sierra Leone Seed Certification Agency (SLeSCA) for seed regulation and certification, support the National Fertilizer Regulatory Agency (NAFRA) to enforce fertilizer quality standards including Economic Community of West African States harmonization, and bolster agro-dealer networks with a focus on women and youth. Sub-component 1.2 Strengthening Climate-Smart Technology Transfer will accelerate adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) through collaboration among the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS), SLARI, international centers, and the private sector, using demonstrations, farmer field schools, lead farmers, and gender-responsive extension to disseminate improved germplasm, efficient nutrient and water management, postharvest technologies, and practices such as urea deep placement and cocoa manual pollination. Component 2 – Support for Value Addition and Market Access: Sub-component 2.1 Strengthening Linkages Between Smallholders and Aggregators will professionalize farmer collectives, including modernization into farmer producer companies, and deploy Performance-Based Matching Grants (PBMG) tied to verifiable milestones for inputs, postharvest handling, logistics, processing, and energy, managed by a Matching Grants Management Agency (MGMA) and overseen by an Independent Evaluation Committee (IEC), with gender-responsive criteria to expand women’s participation. Sub-component 2.2 Strengthening Food Safety and Sustainability Standards Compliance will support traceability and compliance with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), expand organic cocoa certification, and improve food safety systems in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Component 3 – Support for Digitization and Access to Finance: Sub-component 3.1 Support to Digital Public Infrastructure will establish a national farm and farmer registry, digital soil and weather systems, data governance and interoperability via application programming interfaces, and a unified digital advisory and agribusiness platform, including catalytic grants for agricultural technology (AgTech) solutions. Sub-component 3.2 Support for Enhanced Access to Finance will provide technical assistance to financial institutions (FIs) to set up agribusiness desks, design fit-for-purpose products such as value chain and warehouse receipt financing, and build capacity of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and farmer producer organizations in financial management and literacy, with targeted support for women. Component 4 – Project Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation will finance the project implementation unit (PIU) in the National Development Partners Program Coordination Office (NDPPCO) within MAFS to manage implementation, monitoring and evaluation with a management information system, environmental and social measures, and a grievance redress mechanism (GRM).