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The World Bank’s support of the Government of Liberia’s drive for agricultural transformation is said to improve the productivity of farmers, enabling them to support their families.
To ascertain the progress and constraints for the initiative, last week, a delegation from the Bank visited some of the beneficiaries in the country.
The beneficiaries are of the rice value chain under the Smallholder Transformation Agribusiness Revitalization (STAR-P) and the Rural Economic Transformation Project (RETRAP) of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Both projects are funded by the World Bank and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), secured by the Liberian government as loans and grants to increase agricultural productivity and commercialization of smallholder farmers and agribusinesses in critical value chains.
The visit was led by Renaud Seligman, Director of Strategy and Operations Sustainable Development Practice Group of the World Bank to the Fuamah District Cooperative in Bong Mines, Bong County.
During the visit, Seligman called on Liberians to grow more rice for the country to achieve sufficiency.
“We are here to see the level of progress made in producing food for your country. We would like to hear your stories about how you are progressing and your constraints,” Seligman said.
Since the end of the civil war, the World Bank has been one of Liberia’s strategic partners in supporting the government’s drive to increase rice production to reduce importation.
But, despite the millions of dollars investment over the years by the Bank and other international partners, Liberia has yet to reduce rice importation.
Reports reveal that the country still spends US$200 million annually on rice importation to ensure food security.
To further strengthen the rice value chain, in 2022 the Bank approved US$30 million as additional financing to support rice production.
Tarnue Jeke, RETRAP Operational Manager, said the World Bank’s current support has enabled several farmers and cooperatives in the country to increase productivity.
“As soon as the money was approved, the Ministry decided to support the rice sector. We identified the different rice farmers and cooperatives to assist them with the funding to address their challenges,” he said.
He mentioned that with the support under the program, the farmers (Fuamah Cooperative) received inputs such as fertilizers as well as farm machines to improve yield, expand, and address the post-harvest losses.
“The project support to the farmers has dramatically increased yield to make them earn more incomes to support their families. The farmers before were experiencing a very low yield of 1.5 metric tons per hectare and with 100 acres under cultivation. But today, with our mechanized equipment and inputs, the farmers’ yield has greatly increased to approximately 3 metric tons per hectare covering 900 hectares,” he said.
The Chairperson of the Fuamah Cooperative, Prince Peters, acknowledged the contribution of the project, describing it as overwhelming since the existence of the cooperative.
“With the project’s support our yield has improved greatly and we expect to generate more income. We are ready to work with the government to grow more rice for the country to end hunger. This support from the World Bank, through the Liberian government, makes us very much joyful because our lives are going to improve. Therefore, we are thankful,” he stated.
The cooperative is one of the several farming groups, the Ministry is partnering with to improve domestic rice production.
With continued support from the World Bank-funded projects, the farmers are hopeful to seeing many of their challenges addressed to enable them to adequately supply the market.
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