IPNEWS: Agriculture Minister, Jeanine Cooper, has said the genesis of her work as Liberia’s Minister of Agriculture was challenging as she was taking over a Ministry that had no Minister for a period of nine months, especially with the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, was more challenging.
Minister Cooper stated that despite the challenges she encountered, she is now energized with significant progress made over the last two and a half years in moving the Ministry of Agriculture, especially promoting policies for accelerating the agriculture sector in accordance with the government of Liberia’s PAPD.
The vetran Liberia Agriculturist noted that the Ministry of Agriculture is currently undergoing series of real transformation, especially capturing many entrepreneurs, both old and young, in having a more reliable conversation in moving the agriculture sector and confidence in driving the agriculture sector with a prime focus on making Liberia self-sufficient in food production, especially Liberia’s stable food-Rice.
Asked about local food production, the Liberian Agriculture minister observed that a lot of Liberians’ focus on only rice is a challenging component of the revitalization process of the Ministry of Agriculture through public awareness to ensuring Liberians diversify their diet and accelerate mechanized farming through the use of upgraded machines for high-grade yields of various kinds, especially rice.
“Agriculture is not necessarily about the production of rice alone as it is being perceived by some Liberians, but about the production of variety of food crops and others”. Minister Cooper said.
She further stated in response to concerns about the politics associated with the issue of rice, Liberia’s staple, Minister Jeanine Cooper, said the Agriculture Ministry has invested quite a bit in agriculture, particularly to small holder farmers, who she said are prevalent in the cash crops sector and produced bulk of the country’s food, not just rice, but also surplus vegetables that come on the local market.
“We also provided a number of stimulus packages sometimes in cash, sometimes seeds and tools, and sometimes just in services,” Minister Cooper also told IP NEWS in an exclusive interview.
Furthermore, Minister Cooper, said that even though the Liberia agriculture commercialization funds, has taken some time to get moving through it matching grant scheme, yet there is significant progress made in taking Liberia into commercial marketing.
She named the Marcona Farming Cooperative as an example of one of the recipients of the grant. Noting that Cooperative initiative for the agriculture sector is one of the best practical options in taking farming to another level owing to infrastructure capacity in allowing the movement of farming implements into difficult locations.
She lauded some counties such as Lofa, Nimba, Bong, among others for doing well with the production of various produces on the Liberian Market.
For more into this exclusive interview, login onto www.independentprobe.com
