A local agriculture group under the banner “Feed Liberia” has launched an appeal to the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and other nongovernmental organizations for support.Feed Liberia is a Bong County – based agriculture group that is engaged in rice farming in about three districts in the county.
Since its establishment in 2017, the agriculture group has made several farms and is currently paying the tuition of about 52 less fortunate children through proceeds from their farms.
Speaking to journalists over the weekend, Feed Liberia Executive Director Victor Togbah said they currently lack finance to purchase necessary materials that will enable them to continue their farming.
According to him, due to the lack of needed materials, they sometimes find it difficult to reach their benchmark during a farming season.
He calls on the government to support his team, saying water- drawler, cutlasses, spraying camps, fertilizer and anta – inset chemicals are materials they need at the moment.
He explains that they are not only engaged in rice farming but are also producing beans, cassava and other local products.
“We really want help because when we get those things we [are] talking about, it will be absolutely fine for us as farmers who want to transform the livelihood of our members,” he maintains.Mr. Togbah says they have over 175 members who are directly engaged in working on a daily basis to produce more food.
“We want to see a Liberia where its citizens will stop importing rice, pepper, dry-cassava, garden-egg, among others. The country’s staple food is rice, but what idea does it make for a country to keep importing its staple, especially where you have fertile soil even more than those countries you are depending on to import rice? he wonders.
The Feed Liberia’s Executive Director says it is a disservice for a country to depend on China that has the world’s largest population for food, pledging his organization’s commitment to produce more food through its meager resources.Liberia spends more than US$250m to import rice annually, but local farmers continue to complain about needed materials to support their farming activities.
Our correspondent says in Bong County, many of those who are engaged in farming activities are sometimes seen in nearby cities buying imported rice.People who were noted for commercial farming have now adapted to subsistence farming which cannot even sustain them.
By Joseph Titus Yekeryan in Bong–Edited by Winston W. Parley
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