Report by Willie N. Tokpah, [email protected]
Harper – Liberians living in the southeastern county of Maryland are relying heavily on neighboring Cote d’Ivoire for food due to poor food security that is resulting from limited programs to boost agriculture.
Farmers in the region say they receive little or no support from government and their produce are not sufficient enough to feed the county’s population.
Maryland County has a population of 136,404, according to 2008 censor report.
According to the citizens, bad road network is a serious challenge to agriculture, constraining them to rely on the Ivorian agriculture sector.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization have currently shut down its operation in Maryland County due to lack of funding.
FAO Communication Officer, Slontee Slobert told FrontPage Africa via mobile phone that the organization was working in the areas of food security and women empowerment.
These projects, according to FAO, were meant to boost women’s involvement in promoting food productivity but inadequate funding has since stalled the projects.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs County Development Agenda report, inadequate and non-existent basic infrastructure continues to hamper the quality of life.
The report further states that currently, basic human development indicators are very low in the county.
Citizens said the two main parts of the county they depend on for food production – Karluway and Barrobo – are no longer producing enough due to limited attention by government.
There has been reduction in the quantity of major produce like eddoes, potatoes and okra.
Abraham Wilson, Maryland County Marketing Association Superintendent sees the monitoring of food commodities is weak.
Wilson told FPA that the Ministry of Commerce has limited manpower to conduct proper monitoring of food commodities coming into the county from Cote d’Ivoire.
According to him, the government of Ivory Coast is currently benefiting from more levies paid by Liberian business practitioners residing in Maryland.
This, according to him, is due to high transportation fares for both land and sea travels.
“Commodities leaving Monrovia to Maryland spend about a week before reaching and transportation fares are high for traveling on road and sea,” Wilson averred.
He called for the establishment of the agriculture bank as means of reawakening the county’s agriculture sector.
“If President Weah reawakens the agriculture bank in Liberia, it will help boost the agriculture sector through micro-loan.”
Foreigners Dominates Business Sector
Superintendent Wilson said foreigner, most especially Fulani’s are in numbers and have overshadowed the business community in the county.
At the same time, a commercial fish leader, Mamie Elliot noted that Ghanaians are controlling the artisanal fishing sector. They owned many boats that carried out fishing activities.
“If the Fanti people decide to pack their boats, we hardly get fish and we have to go to Ivory Coast to buy frozen fish. Currently, we are in the rainy season and the Fantis have taken most of their boats off the water. Fish business is hard here,” he said.
She said the Forestry Development Association regulations on bush meat have created scarcity on the sale of bush meat.
Dual Currency, a problem
Dual currency remains another problem for people of the county, who see it as an impediment to food security.
The county is currently using three currencies as they express concerns that regulatory bodies are making little or no efforts to address such challenge.
“We used three currencies here for buying our commodities. We used the United States Dollars, Liberian Dollars and Ivorian Cefa to buy here. Business people are compelled to hold Cefa because that’s what they use to buy their goods in Ivory Coast,” Wilson told FPA.
Currently, the citizens are complaining that there are hike in prices of commodities with no price control as a result of huge levies they paid to the Ivorian government.
Farmers Complaint
George Brisby grows fruit and low land rice. He attributes the poor food production in the county to unfavorable agriculture sites.
“Flood has overshadowed bulk of the swampland used for farming and we do not have sufficient area for farming,” Brisby said.
He said the wetland is preferred by farmers in the area due to its uniqueness for mass production but growing rice on these sites becomes useless during the rainy season due to flooding.
Another farmer, Daniel Chea (not the former Defense Minister) said swamp rice production has slowed in the county due to the breakdown of production machines including power tiller and miller.
But the local farmer believes there are other agricultural alternatives.
“Rice is not the only source of food production but I would like to encourage my colleagues to get involved in vegetables production which many are not concentrating on.
“I alone or few people cannot supply this entire county. We need others to join us in the farming area,” Chea said.
Local Authority Concern
Ministry of Agriculture local office in Maryland County says it is concern about the situation and is doing all it can to improve the sector.
Jerome Karnwea, the county coordinator, said the Ministry has currently carried out more improvement on its site to encourage the production of varieties of products in the county.
“Currently, we have 36 hectare and 18 have been used for lowland production. 46 farmers are currently working on the hectare. We have power tiller, mailers and other stuffs used on our farm for food production,” Karnwea said.
Karnwea, who hinted that government has warned county’s coordinators against speaking to the media, confirmed food productivity in the county is at a slow pace, noting that it stems from several factors.
He said accessibility of farm-to-market road remains a challenge for some farmers.
However, the Agriculture Ministry head in Maryland noted that it will take time for the county to reach a level of production that will satisfy the entire population of the southeastern sector.