Cassava Value Chain Development Project, Sierra Leone

About this project

RATIONALE Until the early 1990s, cassava cultivation in Sierra Leone was mostly based on traditional low-yielding cultivars with average yields of 11 tons/ha and manual processing. Since the early 2000s, Sierra Leone have witnessed greater attention being given by different actors to the promotion of cassava as an industrial crop with the objectives of diversifying farmers’ incomes, enhancing foreign exchange earnings, and increasing employment opportunities. The Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute, with technical backstopping from the International Institute of tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria are two such important factors that have contributed to this transformation, and will continue to remain so The development of the cassava market in Sierra Leone has led to a stepwise adoption of high-yielding cultivars with a potential for an on-farm yield of up to 25 tons/ha and the mechanization of labor-intensive processing stages such as grating, pressing, roasting, drying, and milling with very basic equipment. However, the producers have not explore the possibility of targeting the non-food industry of cassava products, mainly cassava flour and cassava starch which is in high demand by the cosmetic, confectionary, medical, and pharmaceutical industries globally. This market has the potential of not

Published by

Islamic Development Bank · Government

Countries

Sierra Leone

Sectors

III.1.a. Agriculture

Funded by

Islamic Development Bank, IsDB - Endowment Fund

Published by Islamic Development Bank to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), last updated 28 Dec 2025 and imported automatically. IATI identifier: XM-DAC-46025-SLE1030.

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