Liberia's Rich
Agricultural Potential

The soil of Liberia is fertile enough to host and grow all consumable produce, including cocoa, coffee, palm nuts, cassava, pepper, banana, mango, yam, potatoes, eddoes, rice – Liberia’s staple food – and other basic agriculture products.

In fact, Liberia has one of the world’s largest rubber plantations. The rubber plantations of Liberia are well known for having dominated the world rubber market for decades during the middle of the 19 century.

Ironically, much of the products produced in Liberia cannot be consumed locally and must be exported. Meanwhile, 95% of what Liberians consume must be imported.

Liberia has many large bodies of water, including lakes such as Lake Pisso and 15 river basins interlacing the country. These make Liberia the number one nation in Africa and the world for waterfalls.

The Forestry Development Authority of Liberia (FDA) confirms that the natural beauty of Liberia includes a large area of forests, covering nearly 14 million acres and including 230 species of useable timber, such as mahogany, palm trees (some with several heads), sacred oracles, walnut, makere, red ironwood, teak, whismore, cam wood, abura, and niango.

Wildlife such as elephants, chimpanzees, pygmy hippopotamus (the only kind in the world), and viviparous toad, cross river gorilla, water buffalo, lion, zebra duiker, leopards, Diana monkey, white mangabey, and eagles are also abundant in Liberia. Magnificent “dancing birds” such as gymnobucco calvus, gymnobucco peli, pogoniulus scolopaceus, and pogoniulus white-breasted guinea fowl atroflavus, pogoniulus subsulphureus, buccanodon duchaillui and lybius vieilloti are found in Liberia as well.

The story of the lady only known as Ma Gamai is a perfect description of common Liberian women and their role in enhancing development through agriculture initiatives.

Ma Gamai was born in Lofa County, in a town quite near the border with Guinea. Her grandparents and parents never attended school, and she did not attend either. Ma Gamai lived her entire live in Lofa devoted to subsistent farming as her only source of survival.

During the 1930s and 40s, people such as Ma Gamai were responsible for Liberia being able to export rice and other agricultural commodities to Ghana and other West African nations. This made Liberia then the gateway and “melting pot” in Africa, according to Liberian history.

When Ma Gamai was in exile Guinea and Sierra Leone refugee camps, it was the skills she acquired during early childhood for communal farming through indigenous farming strategies known as “ku” or “susu” that she relied on for her basic survival.

“Susu” is an organized group of indigenous farmers (usually 25~ 30 persons) who lack access to basic modern farming tools for merchandise farming. Its size is usually structured to complete an entire phase of farm tasks each day through a rotational process among its members. The activity begins with the men brushing and cutting down tall forest trees with axes and burning the underbrush. The women then take over from the men and plant through the harvest to complete a farming circle.

Indigenous farming is very risky and dangerous, because all work is done manually and requires tremendous physical strength and time. Almost yearly, someone dies from the work. Nearly all Liberian farmers are indigenous farmers who yield less than 30% of the actual labor invested.

Now an internally displaced person (IDP) on Peace Island, Ma Gamai temporarily squats on a plot of land tending a sweet potatoes garden. Early each morning, she cuts her potatoe greens and walks three miles to a local market. She sells the greens for cash, which she uses primarily to provide school fees for her three grandchildren.

Meanwhile, reliable sources predict famine for the people of Lofa County next year, because the rains came earlier than normal and prevented the burning of farms for planting. This certainly comes as bad news for Ma Gamai, who eagerly wants to leave Monrovia, which overcrowded with 1.4 million people.

A nation that once fed itself and exported surplus is still capable of doing this, provided that all Liberians return to the soil and prioritize agricultural research, training and programs to reverse the prevailing zero per capital food production ratio.