On 13^th October 2014 Leone Joseph Sam Sesay as the Sierra Leone Minister of Agriculture met Nicola Sartor as the Rector of the University of Verona in order to discuss the start of the project called “Smart Village Mechanized Rice Farming”. During the meeting, which took place at the University of Verona, Massimo Gazzani was present. He will be the person in charge at the EXPO2015 Fair for the Isola della Scala Fair Organization.

“Smart Village Mechanized Rice Farming” is a project which aims to realise an experimental trial of a self-sufficient village, which is able to sustain itself through the creation of rice and vegetables cultivations, but also through animals breeding. This village has the possibility to produce clean energy and is provided with a health centre. This pilot project will be officially shown in occasion of the Cluster of rice during the EXPO2015 Fair. It is part of the initiatives for the Development Cooperation promoted by the University of Verona coordinated by Professor Elda Baggio. The University has realised 27 projects with the aim of favouring international co-operation, in order to promote webs of relations and partnerships and with the aim of transferring technologies and abilities.

The Minister Sesay said: "I am grateful to this University for having decided to help our country and for the efforts, the abilities and the resources it will put forward. It's a difficult period for Sierra Leone, but projects like the “Smart Village Mechanized Rice Farming” help us to hope for an improvement.

The Rector Nicola Sartor added: "We feel very honoured to collaborate on the initiative. Our challenge is to realise the project, surely ambitious, but realistic. We want to lead it to independent autonomy. I think that for Sierra Leone we need implementation. With this main aim we engage in order to create also other typologies of support so that the project will give the awaited results.”.

Italian Version