MONROVIA – President George Weah on Monday held a five-hour meeting with officials of the Ministry of Agriculture along with partners and stakeholders in that sector.
Report by Henry Karmo, [email protected]
The meeting, according to President Weah in a brief chart with reporters, was intended to study ways to grow the nation’s agriculture sector for the benefits of Liberia and its people.
“We see the agriculture sector as important and so we want to bring our partners on the table to strategize ways to develop that sector for the benefits of our people and how we can leave small farming to go into large farming,” he said.
The Liberian President believes performance in the agriculture sector does not commensurate with the level of investment the sector has had. He said the Monday working meeting was to strategize ways that would utilize those aids given by donors.
“We will form a technical team to study and come up with ways that would help us grow our agriculture sector. For the kind of investment in agriculture we don’t see the result; I am concern. We want to see Liberian eating their own rice and to some extent exporting to other countries.
As a way to show his commitment, President Weah said he is also studying possibilities to make a farm in his home town because, according to him, doing so will encourage others to do the same.
Trying to go merchandize
Dr. Mogana Flomo Liberian Minister of Agriculture said, the government have drafted a five-year plan that could cost five million United States dollars to be invested in the Agriculture sector and expressed his optimism that with such investment Liberians could have enough to feed themselves and export food to neighboring countries.
“Some of the things we are looking at is trying to go merchandize. We cannot continue to use cutlasses and hoes and think we can feed ourselves as a country. There is a need we shift to machine to be able to produce on a larger scale to be able to feed ourselves as a country.
“From the projection, if we put in US$511 million over the next five years by 2023 we will be able to export rice. We need technicians to provide assistance to the farmers; we have done a lot but there is still a lot more to be done for our farmers.”
He also disclosed that the Government of Liberia has short term plans to invest into meat, cocoa, rice and vegetable production on lager scale.
President Weah said despite endless resources being poured into agriculture by the government and international partners, the returns of these interventions toward the country are almost negligible.
During President, Weah second State of the Nation address at the legislature, said the agriculture sector accounts for more than 70 percent of household earnings and stressed the importance that the Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD) can only be sustainably achieved through agriculture.
He said his government will craft new practical and realistic agriculture policies to promote the sector.
“We will incentivize the sector by providing access to credit, reducing tariffs on agricultural implements, and provide small machines, modern seeds and fertilizers,” the President said.
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