2018 was the most impactful and profitable year in Mountain Lion Agriculture’s history. Maintaining the momentum of our 2017 sales and marketing gains, we also reached a record number of smallholder farmers with interest-free loans and training which greatly expanded our supplier network. Our performance, as well as support from our partners at Woord en Daad and the Sierra Leone Agribusiness Development Fund, enabled us to upgrade our facilities and reach 2850 new smallholders with agronomic, financial and organizational training. At present, our expanded supplier network is producing more than three times the raw paddy we need, and demand is so high for our rice we have had to be selective in targeting only certain areas in order to maintain customer relationships.

Our loans and equipment enable smallholders subsisting on $30 net profit per year to increase the size of their rice farms, while our climate-smart agronomic training is increasing yields and making crops more resilient to extreme weather. These two increases combine to generate an economic revolution for our smallholder suppliers, who are transitioning from subsistence gardeners to profitable, sustainable commercial farmers. In particular good progress was made in rolling out our climate-smart Carbon Building training, with 7 demonstration plots established and workshops delivered to 28 communities. See below our 2018 training in action at one such demonstration plot:

Carbon Building – a climate-smart combination of mulch and compost which increases soil fertility, crop resilience and yields – is ideal for our smallholder suppliers. It was identified after 7 years of research demonstrating available chemical fertilizers are not cost-effective and are washed away by the heavy rains of the rice growing season. Carbon Building only requires smallholders to collect organic waste and biomass for composting, and keep the straw from last year’s crop for mulch. With the raw materials freely available, this simple and effective practice has been well received by our suppliers and is improving the profitability and sustainability of their farming.

The training of 2850 smallholders in Carbon Building is even more exciting in the context of Mountain Lion Agriculture’s own 2018 research results. Each year, we relentlessly re-test previous results and explore new agronomic practices that are accessible to our smallholder suppliers. It is this smallholder-centric approach which led us to Carbon Building, as the raw ingredients for compost and mulch are freely available to smallholders. All that is required is the labour to produce and apply them. Carbon Building does not acidify the soil or wash away during heavy rains, unlike available chemical fertilizers, as our previous research (published in the United Kingdom’s Tropical Agriculture Association Journal) has demonstrated. In 2018 we tested further refinements of the method and compared broadcasting to row planting in the context of Carbon Building:

These results, produced in Sierra Leone’s lowest performing Boliland ecology, are profound. They indicate a nearly 300% increase in yield compared to the common Boliland slash-and-burn method most prevalent amongst Sierra Leone’s smallholders. If these results are even partially replicated by the 2850 smallholders trained in Carbon Building in 2018, we are on the cusp of leading a sustainable, women-led, climate-smart rice revolution in Sierra Leone.

Having been tested and come through a decade of challenges and learning, Mountain Lion Agriculture is lean, refined and profitable. Our contribution is needed now more than ever as the Leone devalues, driving up imported rice prices for already vulnerable consumers. We are therefore looking to the future with both urgency and confidence, and feel ready to begin exploring expansion. Mountain Lion Ag would like to thank all of our partners who have stood by us through thick and thin: MEDA, Sarona Asset Management, Horsch Foundation, KIVA, Woord en Daad and CordAid.

Most of all, we wish to dedicate 2018’s success to our late, visionary manager Omeh Fayia Jimmy. Jimmy gave his life to ensure Mountain Lion Ag could continue its vital work supporting farmers during the Ebola Crisis. His memory inspires us to keep going, keep learning and keep serving our farmers no matter the challenges we face.