Authors : Fatmata Fauziatu Vincent; Hamza Amin Kargbo

Volume/Issue : Volume 11 - 2026, Issue 9 - September

Google Scholar : https://tinyurl.com/6zj7j75w

DOI : https://doi.org/10.38124/ijisrt/26sep148

Note : A published paper may take 4-5 working days from the publication date to appear in PlumX Metrics, Semantic Scholar, and ResearchGate.

Abstract : Sierra Leone food system contains a large body of practical knowledge developed through rice parboiling, cassava fermentation, fish smoking, sun drying, oil extraction and other household or small-enterprise techniques. These practices remain important to food availability, taste, identity and income, yet they operate within value chains marked by postharvest loss, variable quality, weak market information and limited access to suitable processing equipment. This critical narrative review examines how digital technologies could strengthen, document and responsibly modernise indigenous food processing and preservation without displacing the knowledge holders on whom the system depends. Evidence was synthesised from peer-reviewed research and policy or institutional publications on Sierra Leone, West Africa and comparable smallholder food systems. The review identifies six practical pathways: digital documentation of local knowledge; mobile and multimedia training; low-cost sensing and decision support; digital quality assurance and traceability; market, payment and logistics platforms; and data-enabled coordination of processors, extension services and public institutions. These pathways can reduce avoidable loss, improve food safety, widen market access, support womenand youth-led enterprises and make local foods more visible within national food-security programmes. However, technology is not automatically inclusive. Unreliable electricity and connectivity, device and data costs, limited digital literacy, gendered control of assets, weak standards, cybersecurity risks and the extraction of community knowledge without consent may reproduce existing inequalities. The article proposes a human-centred “document validate adapt connect govern” framework and argues for phased pilots built around familiar foods, local languages, offline functionality and measurable food-security outcomes. Digital transformation should therefore be understood as a partnership between indigenous expertise and appropriate technology, not as the replacement of traditional practice by imported systems.

Keywords : Indigenous Knowledge; Food Processing; Food Preservation; Digital Agriculture; Post-Harvest Loss; Food Security; Sierra Leone.

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