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GANTA, NIMBA COUNTY – A group of women farmers operating under the Liberia United Youth for Community Development Enterprise (LYUCDE) is appealing to the Ministry of Agriculture and its partners for support to expand vegetable and rice production and strengthen their efforts to produce organic fertilizers and pesticides locally.
The women, who have been engaged in farming for more than five years, say limited access to agricultural tools, equipment, financing and productive land has prevented them from fully utilizing their skills and agricultural potential.
Speaking to this reporter at the group’s training site on Wednesday, August 19, LYUCDE Operations Director Patience N. Williams said the organization has trained about 50 women to produce organic fertilizer and pesticides for vegetable and rice farming.
Williams said the initiative aims to reduce the group’s dependence on imported chemical fertilizers, including NPK, which she said are often expensive, difficult to obtain, and may pose health risks when improperly used.
“As you can see from this training site, we trained our women to prepare their own fertilizer to avoid the use of imported fertilizer, because the economic cost attached to getting imported chemical fertilizer is huge,” Williams said.
She added that excessive or improper use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides could affect crops and raise concerns about the safety of agricultural products consumed by farmers and their communities.
“Again, we noticed that too much chemical fertilizer or pesticide has some effects on the crops and also affects us when we consume the plant,” she said.
According to Williams, the women have acquired the skills needed to produce agricultural inputs locally but lack the resources required to expand production.
“We have the skills, but we are not receiving the required support to carry on production as per our training,” she said.
Lack of Basic Farming Equipment
Williams said the group lacks basic agricultural tools and protective equipment, including hoes, shovels, diggers, cutlasses and rain boots.
“We don’t even have the tools or agricultural gear – no hoes, no digger, no shovel, no rain boots, cutlasses and others,” she said.
One member of the group, who has worked with the organization for five years, said the women have yet to receive meaningful assistance from the government or non-governmental organizations.
“I’ve been working here for five years, but we have yet to get any help from the government or even the NGOs,” she said.
She said the lack of adequate protective equipment has also exposed farmers to risks while working on their farms.
“We even lost two of our colleagues last year, a male and a female, from sicknesses and cutlass wounds because we had no good working gear,” she added.
Call for Cassava-Processing Equipment
Beyond vegetable and rice production, the women are also seeking support to process cassava into finished products rather than selling it raw.
Williams said cassava is currently one of the group’s main sources of income and helps finance their farming activities.
“If we could have the equipment, we could process our cassava to fufu, garri and deepah before selling. Instead, we are selling the cassava raw or unprocessed so as to get money,” she said.
During a visit by this reporter to the training site near the Ganta Main Border, some members of the group were observed preparing organic fertilizer and pesticides using locally available materials.
Williams holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education from ABC University in Yekepa and later received specialized agronomy training in Zimbabwe and Uganda, including training in organic fertilizer production and farm management.
Land and Access to Agricultural Programs
Williams said LUYCDE currently has more than five hectares of lowland suitable for rice production but needs additional support to expand cultivation.
“We have over five hectares of lowland for rice production, but if we receive the necessary support, we will extend the land space,” she said.
She said the Ministry of Agriculture has provided financial support to farmers in Nimba County and that yellow machines are currently being used to prepare farmland in Gbadin. However, she said LUYCDE has struggled to access or benefit from some of these opportunities.
According to Williams, the organization applied for assistance but did not qualify because its available farmland did not meet a 100-hectare requirement.
She is therefore calling for a more inclusive approach to agricultural support programs that takes into consideration smallholder farmers and organized women’s agricultural groups.
Williams said support in the areas of farming tools, protective equipment, financing, land preparation and cassava-processing machinery would enable the women to increase food production, generate income, improve their livelihoods and make better use of the agricultural skills they have acquired.
