The World Bank’s support of the Government of Liberia’s drive for agricultural productivity and transformation is said to impact the lives of many beneficiaries.
Last week, a bank delegation visited some of the country’s beneficiaries to ascertain progress and challenges for the initiative.
The beneficiaries visited are from the rice value chain, covered by the Ministry of Agriculture’s Smallholder Transformation Agribusiness Revitalization (STAR-P) and Rural Economic Transformation Project (RETRAP) projects.
Both projects are funded by the World Bank and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) as loans and grants secured by the Liberian government. They aim to increase agricultural productivity and commercialize smallholder farmers and agribusinesses in critical agrarian value chains.
Renaud Seligmann, Director of Strategy and Operations for the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Practice Group, led the visit.
During the visit, Seligma called on Liberians to grow more rice to achieve sufficiency.
“We are here to see the progress made in producing food for your country. We would like to hear your stories about your progress and constraints,” Seligmann said.
Since the end of the civil war, the World Bank has been one of Liberia’s strategic partners in supporting the government’s efforts to increase rice production and reduce imports.
However, despite millions of dollars in funding investment from the Bank and other international partners in rice production in the past, Liberia has yet to reduce importation.
The report revealed that Liberia still spent 200 million dollars annually on rice importation to ensure food security.
In 2022, the Bank approved 30 million dollars as additional financing to support rice production.
Tarnue Jeke, RETRAP Operational Manager, said the World Bank’s current support has enabled several farmers and cooperatives in the country to increase productivity.
“As soon as the money was approved, the Ministry supported the rice sector. We identified the different rice farmers and cooperatives and assisted them in addressing their challenges,” he said.
He mentioned that under the initiative, the farmers received inputs such as fertilizers and farm machines to improve yield, expand, and address the post-harvest losses.
“The project support to the farmers has dramatically increased yield to make them earn more incomes to support their families. The farmers before were experiencing a very low yield of 1.5 metric tons per hectare, with 100 acres under cultivation. But today, with the provision of our mechanized equipment and inputs, the farmers’ yield has greatly increased to approximately three metric tons per hectare covering 900 hectares,” he said.
The Chairperson of the Cooperative, Prince Peters, acknowledged the project’s contributions, describing them as overwhelming since the cooperative’s existence.
“With the project support, our yield has improved greatly, and we expect to generate more income. We are ready to work with the government to grow more rice so that the country can end hunger. This support from the World Bank through the Liberian government makes us joyful because our lives will improve. Therefore, we are thankful,” he stated.
With continued support from the World Bank-funded projects, the farmers hope to see their challenges addressed to supply the market adequately.
By Judoemue M. Kollie
