and (v) Appropriate mechanisms for managing, sharing and up scaling agricultural knowledge, information and technologies established and operationalized. This strategic Plan emphasises the need for SLARI, as a national research organization, to work with partners, collaborators, the farming community and other players along the various agricultural product value chains so as to have a vibrant commercially-oriented and competitive agricultural sector. To be responsive to client demands, and eventually deliver development objectives, there is greater need of true partnerships among key stakeholders within the agricultural sector. This Strategic Plan, therefore, provides a framework and a roadmap for SLARI’s research programmes for the next ten years. As a framework, the Strategic Plan provides the guiding principles and basis on which a detailed five year operational plan that is required to operationalize it shall be developed. The Strategic Plan is the outcome of several months of continuous learning, communication and negotiation by the Institute and stakeholders, with the primary objective of building consensus around the Institute’s strategic areas. In this regard, I wish to thank the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security through whose initiative and effort a collaborative partnership with Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and Africa Rice Centre and Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa was established to assist SLARI in the development of this new Strategic Plan. In view of this, I would like to thank most sincerely the team of experts from the KARI, Africa Rice Centre and FARA under the leadership of Dr. Antony M. Kilewe who spearheaded the preparation of this Strategic Plan. I appreciate the efforts and hard work of the SLARI Director General, Dr A. Dixon and all the SLARI staff and stakeholders who were involved in one way or another in the preparation of this document. It is my hope that all our stakeholders will find the document pragmatic and adequately reflective of their needs from the point of view of agricultural research for development.
Prof. Edward R. Rhodes, Chairman, SLARI Council
Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute
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Strategic Plan 2012-2021