By Abisola Adek0ya
This is the final in a three part series on farming in conflict zones. To read the first and second part of this series, see: Where Cultivation Meets Conflict: Farming in Sudan’s War-Torn Darfur Region and Where Cultivation Meets Conflict: Farming in the Niger Delta.
After fourteen years of bloody civil war from1989 to 2003, Liberia has struggled to overcome aftermath of conflict. Some 10 percent of the population, 3 million people, was killed, and most of the country’s physical infrastructure, including roads and bridges, was destroyed. Food production also suffered.
After 14 years of bitter civil war, Liberian farmers are finally starting to rebound (Photo Source: UN Photo/Tortoli).
According to the World Food Program, 39 percent of Liberian children under the age of five are stunted, and 27 percent are underweight as a result of food shortages. More than 40 percent of people are malnourished in more than half of the nation’s counties, while between 30-40 percent of people are malnourished in the remaining six counties.
For farmers like Lincoln Yeneken, low productivity, limited access to tools and seed, crop pests, and an inadequate road network, are major obstacles to agricultural development. In an interview with allAfrica.com, Yeneken said, “within the next five years I would like to plant coffee and rubber but I need tools and help to rebuild,” as he pointed to the frames of the simple huts and granary for the rice he is now putting up. Yeneken’s modest but productive subsistence farm and traps for bush meat are already doing relatively well, producing enough rice, cassava, plantain, and eddoes to feed his family and pay for his children’s school fees. But during the rainy season, his fields turn into swamp lands, dramatically raising the incidence of malaria infections and making it all but impossible to raise enough food.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like the Agricultural Cooperative Development International and Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (ACDI/VOCA) are trying to address these problems, by working with farmers on drainage projects, activities to improve their agricultural skills and improve their access to farming equipment and credit, but many Liberian farmers remain untouched by such programs.
The government’s limited capacity means that most of the county-level work in agriculture is currently being done by NGOs, but under the leadership of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, there is hope that this will soon change, particularly with increased private investment in Liberia. Her administration has made it clear that paying more attention to the agriculture sector is one of the keys to kick starting the economy. President Johnson-Sirleaf stated at a Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security of the Global Agricultural Development Initiative in Washington DC over the summer that “our policy goal in the sector is to revitalize operations and activities that contribute to sustainable economic growth and development; to provide food security and nutrition; and to increase farmers’ employment and income – all aimed at measurably reducing poverty.”
In the wake of such a long and devastating civil war, there is no shortage of work for the Liberian government. But, among the long list of projects to be undertaken, helping small-scale farmers to rebound is the only way to ensure that Liberia is set on the road to recover.
Abisola Adekoya is a research intern with the Nourishing the Planet project.
