(Fuamah District, Bong County, November 3, 2020): - Liberia’s Minister of Agriculture on today excitingly traveled to Central Liberia’s Bong County to launch a major rice harvest on a farm lying near a hilly former iron ore mining town.
Accompanied by her Deputy Minister for Planning and Development, Robert K. Fagans, the visit is indicative of the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Agriculture’s (MOA) support for Liberian smallholder farmers during this rice harvesting season.
The James T. Nyumah Farm, totaling 300 acres of planted rice, is situated in Dobli Clain, Fuamah District about 95 km northwest of the Liberian capital, Monrovia and has a workforce of 500 persons.
“We have immediately instructed our relevant department at the MOA to start loaning rice threshers to farmers to avoid post-harvest losses to rodents and unfriendly weather. The Government of Liberia through the MOA is taking this initiative to directly support our farmers”, Minister Cooper said.
Rice thresher is a small-size agro equipment that removes seeds from stalks and husks instead of the age-old practice of beating the seeds out and few of it are available at the MOA.
Liberian rice farmers always experience post-harvest losses due to lack of threshing machines.