November 10, 2017

A proposal to prepare a blueprint for Agriculture growth and

Development for the Republic of Liberia

It is important that every nation utilizes what assets it has been

endowed with by the Almighty God to improve its quality of Life. Liberia
is endowed with abundant land, rainfall, sunshine and proximity to
Europe, a ready market for its tropical produce and potential tourist
attraction.

Liberia produces or has the potential to produce several types of

produce (crops) both for home consumption and export. Some are
pineapples, Avocados, Oranges and Tangerines, Pawpaws, Mangoes,
bananas, cashews, oil palm products, cocoa and coffee our staple food,
rice and more. However, most of these produce are not produced in
the quantity and quality to meet international standards- i.e. some are
harvested prematurely and therefore, lack enjoyable or pleasant taste
(oranges) some are highly perishable and do perish because of the lack
of proper preservation and storage facilities, adequate farms to market
roads, and the lack of capacity to add value or engage in processing. In
short, Liberia lacks the organizational framework to produce
adequately for home consumption and export to earn badly needed
foreign exchange and solve our high unemployment problem.
Consequently, the little foreign exchange earned is spent on imports for
basic food and other commodities. The challenge is for us as a nation
and people to reverse this situation by engaging in comprehensive,
organized and scientific agriculture to meet our local consumption
needs, earn foreign exchange through exports and at the same time
attack high unemployment in our labor market by putting our youth
and others to work through the various stages of agricultural
production.
The various steps or stages to comprehensive, organized and scientific
agriculture are as indicated below:
1. Land Tenure and Procurement
2. Land Preparation
3. Land Cultivation- using modern and scientific methods/
techniques, such as conducting soil analysis or test to determine,
appropriate crops for land utilization. Utilizing new species that
result in higher yields and better taste, etc.
4. Timely Harvest and storage
5. Preservation
6. Processing and adding Value
7. Marketing and export

Assumption in implementing this blueprint is

1. That funding will be available through National budget
appropriation, public/ private partnership and foreign aid:
Reviving the Agricultural and Cooperative Development bank and
calling on our friends and partners such as the Chinese, Israelis,
and Americans to provide us some massive but well directed
 technical assistance to support the various stages indicated
above.
2. That the Cooperative and Development Agency will be revived
and strengthened to train more personnel to manage and
establish more agricultural cooperatives to support agricultural
activities.
3. That manpower needs assessment for the various stages outlined
above will be determined and the required training will be
organized to enhance the performance of functionaries.

It is intended that a workshop will be conducted shortly where papers

will be developed and presented on the various steps outlined above
along with panel and group discussions, after which a blueprint will be
developed and presented to the incoming elected government for
implementation. Our challenge now is to get our partners and friendly
governments to buy into this proposal by assisting us in providing the
necessary resources to host this symposium.

Prepared By: The Forum for Societal Change