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By Judoemue M. Kollie
Some farmers and agribusiness owners have disclosed that as the result of the intervention of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) through its Smallholder Agriculture Transformation and Agribusiness Revitalization Project (STAR-P), their production capacities have been upgraded or transformed.
The beneficiaries who disclosed the recent field supervision mission of the World Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) are engaged in activities such as the production, processing, and packaging of rice, oil palm, horticulture, agriculture lending, and aggregation.
The World Bank and IFAD mission was also accompanied by some top officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and its project staff as well as representatives from the Ministry of Finance Development Planning, and the Cooperative Development Agency.
It covered six key project implementation counties: Montserrado, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, Margibi, Bong, and Nimba, primarily aimed to gain first-hand insights into the progress of the STAR-P project and assess its impact on the ground, particularly in adherence to environmental and social safeguard standards.
The team visited a diverse range of project beneficiaries, including small and medium enterprises, cooperatives, farmer-based organizations, and agribusinesses and discovered some level of impact in their farming activities and recommended improvement and as pledged their support to make the beneficiaries reach their full potentials.
One of the beneficiaries in the oil palm value chain in Grand Cape Mount County, Stephen B. Dorbor, informed the team that the project has greatly upgraded his processing capacity to supply the market.
Dorbor said the intervention of the Ministry’s project had caused him to transition from manual processing to industrial processing.
“Before, I processed oil manually, producing 40 tins. But with the provision of the grants that procured a modern oil palm mill my processing capacity has greatly increased, extracting 200 tins which reflects an increase in my incomes,” he said.
Dorbor’s business received a truck to transport raw materials from the farm gate to the processing center as well as other inputs. He said that his business is working with several oil palm farmers to create processing opportunities. However, he mentioned that the market is still a challenge confronting his business as middlemen often distort the market prices.
Ralph Nemenla Sonkarlay, Managing Partner of EverGreen Enterprise is one of the beneficiaries whose activities are bringing a change for the fruits and vegetables sub-sector as a result of the provision of grants under the program.
He informed the team that since the intervention of the project his business revenue base has grown greatly and thereby also created income opportunities for more farmers in rural communities through the purchase of food products.
“Before the grant, we had limited products but today it has increased and more customers are attracted to the business. The grant has also helped us to improve the business thereby employing more workers,” he said.
The EverGreen Enterprise received a grant to improve its facility, and procured processing equipment vehicles to transport products to customers and packaging materials.
The Ministry of Agriculture’s STAR project continues to play a crucial role in transforming Liberia’s agricultural sector by empowering smallholder farmers and agribusinesses across the country.
The Project is a government-led initiative aimed at transforming Liberia’s agricultural sector. The project focuses on enhancing the productivity and competitiveness of smallholder farmers and agribusinesses through improved agricultural practices, market access, and value chain development. STAR-P is funded by the World Bank and IFAD, with the Ministry of Agriculture serving as the implementing agency.
Over the years, several farmers and agribusinesses have benefitted from World Bank and IFAD-funded agricultural initiatives. The goal is to ensure or promote access to finance in Liberia’s agricultural sector to improve productivity and make farming. To accelerate this initiative, the Ministry has also intervened to provide a grant to Citi Trust, a commercial bank to conduct research for possible financial assistance to critical areas of the agricultural value chains.
