Freetown — Movement Opposed to Violence and Exclusion in Sierra Leone MOVE SL with support from Food and Agriculture Organization FAO of the United Nations has trained the second set of operators from different Agricultural Business Centers ABCs in Pujehun districts.

The ABC operators were purposely trained for the maintenance of farm and processing equipment that were provided to them in Pujehun District.

According to the national coordinator of MOVE SL, Mohamed Lamin Sow, the training of the second batch of ABC operators was a contingency plan put in place to ensure that the centres stand the test of time as the newly-trained operators are expected to join forces with those trained earlier and together for the betterment of the ABCs.

He therefore described the day as one of his happiest moments because the training of the operators on how to use machines is of great importance to the success of the project and Sierra Leone as a whole.

Sow pointed out that prior to the training of the ABC operators, machines at the centres have been labelled as white elephants because there was no one trained to use them.

He admonished the operators trained to strictly respect what he called the rules and regulations of using the machines at their respective agricultural business centres as the objective of the training was to ensure that at least one operator should be able to operate and maintain the machinery and processing equipment at each ABC correctly.

In his statement, the technical advisor of Yafami agricultural business centre at Brima Town section in Bo, Pa Brima Tarawally, thanked the operators for going through the two weeks training successfully pointing out that with hard work and sincerity, the operators trained will change the general perception that farming is only meant for poor people.

Pa Brima advised farmers against the idea of over dependency saying it has the potential of making good farmers become 'pot farmers.'

The lead facilitator, Francis George, commended his colleagues for a work well done through the two trainings and urged the trained operators to make sure that the knowledge acquired is put to use in order to effect changes in their lives and at their agricultural business centres.

The machines at the different agricultural business centres include cassava graters, power tillers and mobile threshers.