MONROVIA, LIBERIA-The Ministry of Agriculture has identified some Liberian Government owned farms and will shortly commence a rigorous cultivation exercise.
Five of the nine sites identified in five counties will soon have the cultivation of rice before the end of the planting season in June this year.
The identified sites are in Bomi, Bong, Grand Cape Mount, Margibi and Nimba Counties.
Agriculture Minister Jeanine Cooper made the disclosure Saturday, March 20, 2021, when she launched a project titled: “Triumph Garden” at the University of Liberia College of Agriculture and Forestry in Fendell.
The Triumph Garden project is an urban food and nutrition security initiative being funded by the Agriculture Ministry and implemented by Ago Tech Liberia, a group of young Liberia agriculturists.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of Agro Tech Liberia, Jonathan Stewart, said the group is cultivating several acres of land to plant major vegetables for distribution to communities to enhance food security.
According to Minister Cooper, more Government farmlands will be identified in other counties to carry out different agriculture works for food security.
At the same time, the Agriculture Minister disclosed plans to increase the Ministry’s workings with agriculture groupings to enhance food production in the Country.
She said:” The Ministry will also strengthen its collaboration with the UL and other universities, to improve the capacities of students to advance the agriculture sector.”
For now, mechanics at the Agriculture Ministry has begun assembling agriculture equipment recently brought into the Country by Government.
During the week, Government imported sixty power tillers and sixty single ridges in the quest to move from subsistence to mechanized farming to increase agriculture productivity across the Country, during this farming season.
Sixty motorized water pumps meant to supply water from vegetable farming also arrived as part of the consignment of agro-equipment.
Minister Cooper explained that the materials are being assembled and will begin hitting farms in the coming weeks, and more farming equipment are expected in the Country soon.
