Fendell, Montserrado County – As part of its effort to revamp the agricultural sector, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has officially commenced support to sustainable production and marketing of vegetable and poultry for urban women development.
Report by Augustine T. Tweh – [email protected]
The official launch of the project took place on Wednesday, July 5, 2017, at the PMU Building, MOA Annex, Fendell Montserrado County.
Giving an overview of the project, its national project coordinator, Mai Quipu Yuan said the venture is aimed at empowering women and making them sustainable producers in the vegetables and poultry chain to improve their livelihood and nutritional status in the country.
“When women are empowered, there is a balanced in nutrition (first line defense against any sickness), household income is increased, the children are better educated, and the nation is food secured,” she said.
She used the occasion to call on the beneficiaries of the project to take ownership of the development, assuring the MOA and its partners that farmers will work tirelessly to ensure that the goal and objectives of the initiative are accomplished.
“Our farmers will work in collaboration with all stakeholders for the implementation of this development in the provision of land space for production, construction of poultry houses, and manpower for their individual communities in carrying the day to day work for the success of this project,” she averred.
Also speaking at the launch of the project, Deputy Minister for Administration at the MOA, Philomena T. Williams expressed gratitude to the FAO for the initiative, assuring that the project will support the vision of the FAO to end hunger and promote malnutrition in the country.
“We are hopeful that this program is going to be successful. We want to let you know that the MOA has a mandate – a mandate of self-sufficiency in food production.
“FAO has a goal to achieve food security and to end hunger, so we all have a common goal of sustainable agriculture development,” she said.
She added that with the help of the initiative, the Ministry will ensure that there is self-sufficiency in food production, especially vegetables.
“We want you to know that under this project, we will join the global strife to ensure that we have nutrition for our children, the right meal for our children so that we all can be mentally and physically healthy,” she asserted.
Madam Williams affirmed that the support will also ensure that children in Liberia have the right meal and nutrition, and no child will go to bed hungry.
“We say thank you to the FAO for the support. Our President recently launched the zero hunger drive and this project is linked to the zero hunger drive, and it will ensure that our children have enough meal and nutrition, that not a man, not a woman or a child will go to bed hungry in Liberia,” Minister Williams asserted.
For his part, FAO Liberia Country Representative, Marc Abdala said the project falls within the priority of the FAO to boost the agriculture sector of the country.
“I will like to congratulate the Ministry of Agriculture because they requested the support from FAO in order to develop this project. It is a good initiative that the ministry has identified this area of priority and we do believe that this is an area of priority, and FAO accepted to provide the support with the amount of about US$450,000,” he stated.
Abdala urged farmers and the Ministry of Agriculture to take ownership of the initiative in order to do more to increase production in achieving food security, combating poverty and malnutrition.
“To do more depends on all of us, to do more will depend on those who will be our companion with a typical package in order to increase our productivity. To do more will depend will depend on each individual to own the project so that it can no longer be a FAO, the ministry project but our own project,” Abdala noted.
FAO Liberia Country representative assured the MOA of its continued support toward the development of the agriculture sector, cautioning every Liberian to work together in the best interest of the country to improve the agriculture sector for a sustainable growth.