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By Jefferson Massah/jeff.massah24@gmail.com /+231886828622
Dakar, Senegal – Liberia has announced an ambitious $900 million agriculture investment program designed to transform the country’s food systems, boost rural livelihoods, and accelerate economic growth over the next five years.
Agriculture Minister Alexander Nuetah unveiled the Legacy Investment Program on the sidelines of the Africa Food Systems Forum in Dakar, Senegal. The plan prioritizes five key value chains: rice, cassava, maize, coffee, and oil palm.
Minister Nuetah described the program as central to Liberia’s push for food self-sufficiency, improved nutrition, rural job creation, and poverty reduction. He assured potential investors that the country offers an enabling environment for agribusiness, with government incentives designed to encourage sustainable private sector participation.
“The Legacy Investment Program is intentional about evidence-based provision of inputs, infrastructure, technology, and services that will drive productivity across agricultural value chains—from production to processing, transport, and marketing,” he said.
According to the minister, the strategy also supports Liberia’s broader development vision of attaining lower-middle-income status by 2030, reducing unemployment—particularly among youth and women—and raising GDP per capita from $866 in 2024 to $1,115 by 2030.
Highlighting the rice sector, Nuetah announced the introduction of block farm schemes designed to ensure reliable market access, stabilize farmer incomes, and reduce side-selling. The initiative will be anchored by strong private firms coordinating inputs, services, and harvesting, while farmers will operate under cooperative-based structures with renewed membership each year.
The program targets to 50,000 hectares of rice to reduce Liberia’s heavy dependence on imports and move toward self-sufficiency in its staple food; 20,000 hectares of maize to support both household consumption and livestock feed production; 15,000 hectares of coffee aimed at revitalizing the country’s once-thriving export crop and tapping into specialty coffee markets; 20,000 hectares of cassava, a resilient crop vital for food security and agro-processing industries; and 18,000 hectares of oil palm, intended to strengthen both domestic edible oil supply and export earnings. Together, these targets reflect a strategic blend of food security priorities and export-oriented cash crops, positioning agriculture as a cornerstone for job creation, rural development, and foreign exchange growth by the end of the decade.
The unveiling of Liberia’s Legacy Investment Program was marked by strong international interest, drawing high-level delegates, private investors, and representatives from key development partners, including the governments of Germany and Ireland.
Both countries have been long-standing supporters of agricultural transformation across Africa, with investments in rural infrastructure, food security programs, and climate-smart farming practices. Their presence at the ceremony was seen as an endorsement of Liberia’s renewed push to position agriculture at the center of its economic agenda.
The Irish representatives highlighted their country’s ongoing support for food systems transformation, particularly in nutrition-sensitive agriculture, women’s empowerment, and climate resilience. They noted that Ireland’s development cooperation has historically prioritized Liberia, and the new investment framework provides an opening to scale up such partnerships.
Minister Nuetah said the turnout of international partners was a sign of confidence in Liberia’s vision. “We are pleased that our development partners and private investors are showing strong interest. This is not just a plan for Liberia, but a roadmap for how partnerships can deliver shared prosperity across Africa’s food systems,” he remarked.
