Monrovia — Cassava farmers in selected rural areas have narrated a shift in their production after receiving the Rural Economic Transformation Project (RETRAP) grant through the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) intervention.
Through the RETRAP and STAR-P projects, value chains of rice, oil palm, and horticulture (growing plants) receive support to encourage increased agricultural productivity and commercialization.
During field visits in Nimba, Bong, Margibi, Grand Bassa, and Bomi Counties, journalists heard beneficiaries' stories about how the RETRAP grant has shifted their cassava production from a tedious process to merchandized production.
Beneficiaries said that they cultivated fewer acres of land on their cassava farms before receiving grants, but that has shifted significantly since receiving the RETRAP grant.
Through the grant, processing machines and factories, tractors, generators, and other farming equipment were made available where needed to facilitate production and transportation.
Mr. S. Mynah C. Karmo, CEO of STAMAR Karmo Farm in Bomi County, told journalists on Monday, 17 June 2024, that his farm has been a crawling project for over a decade.
with RETRAP's matching grant, he said they are largely into cassava production and empowering smallholder farmers.
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He boasted of overproduction of cassava on his farm upon receiving the MoA's support through the RETRAP project, saying they are now forced to go into minimum processing of fufu and gari.
"The Ministry has done a big job making this place alight today. RETRAP has done a lot of training; that's one thing we got from the RETRAP process," he said.
Mr. Karmo explained that the training includes maintenance, cash-based management, and human resource management and added that it has worked for his farm.
Mr. Karmo said he received US$90,017 in cash and materials from RETRAP, including a tractor and other implements for cassava production.
From the partnership with the MoA and RETRAP, he said his farm has close to 65 local farmers benefiting from whatever training is intended to expand the cassava sector and increase production.
He detailed that they have cultivated about 41 acres of land, while the 65 farmers with whom his group works are cultivating only six acres each.
In Nimba, Mr. Samuel Saye Dokie chairs a farmer cooperative society in Gbokpah Town, Sanniquellie, one of the beneficiaries of RETRAP's grant.
With the intervention of RETRAP, Dokie said the cooperative has since 2022 been deeply involved in cassava, unlike previous years when it also did vegetables, fish, goats, and ducks, among others.
Dokei said they are deeply involved in cassava farming because nothing about it is a waste, adding that even its peeling and leaves are useful.
Through a local radio station announcement, Dokie said his cooperative, which has 25 women and 15 men, was informed that RETRAP was about to help local farmers.
"So, we went there as cassava farmers. So, since we have been with them, RETRAP has been a grateful help to us. We were farming on five acres; presently, we are farming on ten acres," he said.
Last year, he continued, RETRAP supplied the cooperative with US$5,000 worth of goods, farming tools including rain boots and coats, and cutlasses.
Additionally, he said they applied for a grant of US$100,000 this year as a cooperative.
In Bong County, another cassava farmer, Mr. Joseph Massaquoi, explained that his group had low farming logistics before the MoA's intervention.
From a grant received, he disclosed that they used US$31,000 to purchase a six-ton Kia motor to ease the transport of their produce from the farm to supply various factories.
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He also disclosed that more training of farmers was done, and with the grant, they have been able to recruit up to 940 farmers who are now in the training phase.
He noted that his group buys cassava from local farmers to help them avoid losses.
Mr. David W. Kpogbah, chairperson of the Garmamu Multipurpose Agriculture Cooperative Society (GAMACS) in Grand Bassa County, said the MoA has been very helpful to his group.
"They gave us some tools, different, different types, fertilizers, some chemicals to be used," he said.
For the 28 members of GAMACS, Mr. Kpogbah said each of them got a wheelbarrow, two pairs of rain boots and raincoats, each, three cutlasses each, diggers, rigs, and other farming tools.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kpogbah said they need a portable power tiller so that their job cannot be tedious.
