Briefing Paper

West African Agriculture and Climate Change: a Comprehensive Analysis – Sierra Leone

“Agriculture is the largest sector in the Sierra Leone economy, em-ploying more than 75 percent of labor force and contributing be-tween 35 and 47 percent of GDP. Rice, the staple food crop, is grown mainly by small-scale farmers under rainfed conditions. Transporting produce remains a challenge, as most of the roads in remote areas are impassable during the rainy season.
Sierra Leone has one of the highest mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa. The mortality rate for children under five years is the highest on the continent at 297 deaths per 1,000 births for males and 271 deaths per 1,000 births for females.”