Monrovia – BRAC Liberia under it Agriculture, Food Security and Livelihood (AFSL) program has ended a two-day capacity building workshop for government staffs of Liberia in the agriculture sector from six counties.
The workshop focused on Pro-Resilience Action – PRO-ACT 2015: Supporting the poor, food and nutrition insecure to react to crises and strengthen resilience in Liberia which is a post-Ebola two years project funded by the European Union (EU) and is been implemented by BRAC Liberia.
The capacity building workshop compresses of two batches with the total of 52 participants with one group held for the 24th and another on the 25th of July 2018.
The event was held at B-First Hotel 71, 20th street, Sinkor, Monrovia, Liberia.
The meeting brought together cross-section of government officials from national to district level including District Agriculture Officers, District Livestock Officers, SAPEC Extension Officers, EPA Inspectors, District Nutrition Officers, and FDA Inspectors among others.
The workshop facilitators were drawn from the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), BRAC International and the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI).
Topic focused on during the workshop included climate change, its effect in agriculture and adaptive measures, poultry and livestock management as a way of income generation for vulnerable and smallholders farmers, the important of poultry and livestock rearing in Liberia, major diseases of poultry and livestock and their remedies, agriculture nutritious rich crops and vegetable, homestead gardening, how agri-nutrition can contribute to reducing malnutrition and Government Officials and NGO collaboration and access to information among others.
Making welcoming remarks, BRAC Liberia Head of Human Resource and Training and now Acting Country Representative Mr. Sylvanus V. Domah welcome the participants and urged them to tap into the expertise of the facilities which will help them improve their already working skills.
Mr. Domah said BRAC Liberia is always open to working with the Liberian people as seen from its present activities across the country. He assured them of BRAC Liberia full commitment of working with the government of Liberia in ensuring the agriculture and others sectors improve to meet the pro-poor agenda of the government.
Speaking during the opening of the workshop, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture for Regional Development, Research and Extension Cllr. Sayma C. Cephus lauded BRAC Liberia for organizing such a workshop which he described as very essential to the improvement of the skills and knowledge of those in the agriculture sector which will help in the food production of the country and help move the government Pro-Poor agenda forward.
According to Minister Cephus, the training is a model which will enhance the capacity of the participant to improve the food production in the country which is one of the main priorities of the government of Liberia.
Furthered, he disclosed that the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Agriculture is working on a program which calls for the establishment of a farmer’s bank in the country.
He said, with the government officials capacity been built through BRAC workshop, the central government will provide subsidy to the bank and a vetting committee will be set-up through those presently been trained which will help get farmers loan which will help them produce food on a large scale for self-sufficiency.
He then urged the participants to be focused and learn new skills and methods of crops and livestock production as well as homestead gardening during the workshop which could benefit them in their various working in the agriculture sector of Liberia.
Giving the overview of the workshop, BRAC International Agriculture Program Manager Mr. Md. Habibur Rahman Khan disclosed that the workshop was aimed at developing capacities of the government staffs; strengthening Government Officials & NGO collaboration, align the project activities with the government agriculture priorities areas.
As part of the workshop, Mr. Khan stressed that strengthening comprehensive agricultural extension services to the community people through the government officials which are primary to the growth of Liberia food and livestock production is one of the objectives of BRAC Liberia. Further, he highlighted the overall activities of BRAC Liberia especially the five keys areas BRAC is engaged into presently including: Agriculture and Food Security, Education, Micro Finance, Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents and Health.
Mr. Randolph R. Kolleh, an Agricultural Economist and Special Assistance to the Minister of Agriculture presented on Climate-smart Agriculture to Foster Production and food Security
while Mr. Roland Varkpeh, Director of Animal Production at the Ministry of Agriculture spoke on Poultry and Livestock rearing and their management and the former field technician of CARI and now Coordinator of REAP, Mr. Darkpon Dolokelin highlighted the important of vegetables, Nutrition and Homestead garden during the two days’ workshop.