Monrovia – The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Agriculture and Infrastructure Investment Company (AIIC) and president of the National Rice Federation of Liberia (NRFL) said the just ended All African Post-Harvest Congress and Exhibition held at the Headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was in line with Liberia’s scope of work in the agriculture sector.
Mr. Mohammed V. Kamara said the post-harvest congress and exhibition was in line with Liberia’s scope of work in the agriculture sector because Liberia is a post-harvest agriculture country and that he was privileged to participate in the conference.
He narrated that representatives from all over Africa were present and they made presentations from their nations’ perspectives on reduction in post-harvest loses from 2014 to 2025.
Kamara: “If you look at our Liberia now, almost 40 to 50% of our investment is on post-harvest loses and wastes so we are going to work with women and youth in the agriculture sector so that they can be empowered to improve in the area of self-reliance in order for them to help reduce post-harvest losses.”
According to Kamara, 80% of Africans depend on agriculture, therefore it is incumbent on all African governments to address agriculture issues for peaceful co-existence and that it was established that 40% of post-harvest losses in Africa should be reduced to an appreciable level in 2025.
“Some challenges were highlighted such as inadequate farms-to-market roads, poor infrastructure and coaching. It was glaringly stated that food loss and wastes are a global challenge of epic proportions because approximately, one third of all food production in the world is lost or wasted,” he mentioned.
Kamara highlighted that the opportunities that await members of the Post-Harvest Congress and Exhibition were also discussed and it was stated that given the scale of the greenhouse gas impact of food loss and waste, members of the AU can include measures to reduce food loss and wastes in their Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement on climate change.
The AIIC CEO said those measures would include policies, programs, practices, and technologies that reduce food loss on the farm during storage and distribution in the market and the homes.
According to him, the benefit of post-harvest loss was critically analyzed because given the high rate of food loss and wastes in Africa, reducing it can lower national greenhouse gas emissions by a lot and at the same time, food loss and waste reduction offers an additional “Triple Wins” and reduction can save money for African farmers, companies, and households.
Kamara continued that wasting less can mean feeding more in Africa and reduction can alleviate pressure on Africa’s water and land resources and more fundamentally reducing food loss; adding that waste is simply the right thing to do and recommended to African Union few priority crops in Liberia such as rice, cassava, vegetable and maize/cow peas including, coca and palms.
“I asserted that the above-mentioned crops are vital for the economic growth of Liberia in consonance with the Pro-Poor Agriculture Agenda of Prosperity and development and a nutshell, I discussed with several potential business people in the agriculture sector who registered the unweaving interest to do business in Liberia,” he added.