Pioneering High-Yield Rice Production in Sierra Leone: Recommendations for an Outgrower Model

The West African Rice Company (WARC) is a private sector agribusiness devoted to increasing high quality rice production in Sierra Leone, a country where poverty and food insecurity are prevalent. WARC works to optimize the utilization of natural resources in Sierra Leone with the objective of producing an environmentally and economically sustainable model, maximizing the value for shareholders and for the communities within which WARC operates. It aims to sustainably cultivate rice and empower local communities by becoming a role model in the agricultural sector in West Africa. Working with WARC, the SIPA team created an innovative outgrower program that allows local smallholder farmers to transition from subsistence farming to commercial rice production. The proposed outgrower program has been designed to ensure its success and future sustainability and will employ the use of land allocated by the community to promote community ownership.