18 November 2007
column
It is often stated that a nation that can not feed its citizenry is a collection of nothing but Pseudo-independent, and toothless bulldog. It is also often quoted that he who controls the stomach control the mind and it is undoubtedly clear that the mind of a nation is the powerhouse that propels it to achieve its development goals.
Over the years, the cries and greatest desires of the Liberian leaders have been how to make Liberia self sufficient. In this drive, the late President William R. Tolbert, Jr. often reminded us Liberia to get totally involved in the emancipation of the country. He also called for collective action aimed at raising the living conditions of individual citizens.
President Doe demonstrated this when Liberians witnessed him actively engaged in agricultural projects and even mandated all ministers in his government to establish agricultural projects in their home counties or elsewhere in the country.
In the Ellen Johnson led government, the Minister of Commerce Cllr. Frances Johnson Morris is on record for promising during her take over of ministry ceremony that she would not bow to "rice politics", in same token called on Liberians to make rice farms if we want to keep eating rice or eat what we able to grown.
Self sufficiency in food production is the need of Liberia above other development considerations. In a bid to assist Liberians in agricultural self sufficiency, the Church Aid Inc has fielded seven field technicians to seven counties in Liberia to enhance the implementation of her 100-Thousand-Packs-Vegetable-Seeds project in Liberia.
The counties include Nimba, Bong, Margibi, Maryland, Montserrado, Gbarpolu and Bomi. The assignments came after the conclusion of a two-day field orientation workshop conducted recently in collaboration with FOA and the Ministry of Agriculture.
To implement this aspect of the project, Church Aid and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) covering a three (3) months when the UN organization will contribute more than twelve thousand United States dollars to the support of the project.
The agreement covers salaries and rental of motorbikes for field technicians, amongst others. Under the agreement, Church Aid will make available to FAO more than forty thousand packs of seeds for distribution to eight (8) of the fifteen (15) counties in collaboration of the organization field technicians.
These are counties Church Aid is unable to reach due to bad road conditions and limited logistics, amongst others. FAO and Church Aid have also developed a kit distribution system, which both organizations are utilizing for the distribution of the seeds across the country.
Meanwhile, all farmers, gardeners and community residents are admonished to take advantage of the seeds to create self-employment opportunities and contribute to the government and people of Liberia's fight to reduce poverty and raise the standard of living in the country.
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