Keiwoma Mark Yila

Keiwoma Mark Yila Acting Officer in Charge and Research Officer (Cropping Systems Agronomist)
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Mr. Keiwoma Yila is a Research Officer in Agronomy. Mr. Yila holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Education from Njala University College (University of Sierra Leone) and a MSc in Crop Science and MPhil from Njala University. He is presently pursuing a PhD in Crop Science at Njala University. He joined the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute in 2012 as Research Officer assigned to the Njala Agricultural Research Centre. He is presently the acting Officer in Charge for the Kabala Horticultural Crops Research Centre. Over the years, Mr. Yila has participated in several research projects that have identified appropriate:

  • Cassava intercropping technologies for improving crop productivity and climate change adaptation and mitigation on smallholder farms.
  • Orange-fleshed sweet potato genotypes with desirable end-user traits.
  • Mushroom species and substrates for increasing mushroom productivity.
  • Irish potato genotypes for cultivation in the Savannah highlands
  • Rainwater harvesting innovations for sweet potato productivity enhancement on sloping uplands
  • Planting date for diverse soybean genotypes in Sierra Leone.

Mr. Yila has vast knowledge and experience in the design and execution of research and development projects in agriculture, development of training modules and training of farmers on sustainable land management and climate-smart crop production practices; programming questionnaires for electronic data capturing, data analysis using different software and writing of project reports. His current research interest is to identify sustainable land management practices that would improve crop productivity and climate change adaptation and mitigation on smallholder farmers.  Besides his work experience at SLARI, he has 4 years working experience with International Non-governmental organizations implementing relief and development projects in agriculture in Northern Sierra Leone and  10 years teaching experience at the Kelly’s Rural Agricultural and Vocational Secondary School, Hastings.