Liberian Farmers Receive Farming Equipment through the Accelerated Community Development Programme

UNDP, with support from the Liberian government, has donated equipment, basic farming tools and post-harvest processing machines to farmers in three of the 15 counties. The equipment aims to help enhance their labor capacity in making use of large-scale and a more mechanized approach to farming as compared to subsistence farming, which is more labor-intensive and time-consuming. The beneficiary counties include Bong, Rivercess, and Gbarpolu.

The equipment included14 tractors and trailer, over 18,000 pieces of assorted basic farming tools, including rice, cassava, sugar cane milling machines, thirty-four sets of post-harvest processing machines, and a rice thresher were also turned over to the beneficiary communities at a ceremony on Thursday, July 21.

“The tools and equipment, valued at over US$600,000, will add value and help expand the agricultural base of each of the communities, thereby addressing the ultimate challenge of food insecurity,” UNDP Liberia Resident Representative, Louis Kuukpen said at the event. “They will be distributed to identified cooperatives and individual farmers in beneficiary communities in the targeted counties.”

The Liberian agricultural sector, like many other African countries, is still faced with huge challenges, key among these being low productivity due to lack of innovation. Many African farmers are still engaged in subsistence farming due to lack of access to modern farming equipment — a situation that is contributing to the acute food insecurity on the continent. 

The farming equipment and tools are donated under the auspices of Accelerated Community Development Programme (ACDP) — an ambitious five-year initiative launched by President George Weah in November 2022 with a commitment of 100 million United States Dollars for the first three years, 2022-2025.

President Weah, who launched the programme last year at the UN Day celebrations, noted that the ACDP will have an immediate impact on reducing poverty while accelerating socio-economic development in rural communities. 

The ACDP is also expected to accelerate the repair of 39 handpumps and construction of 14 new handpumps and additional 5 solar powered multipurpose boreholes in new communities.

The programme will also construct storage and processing facilities fully equipped with offices for agricultural cooperatives; construct 10 decent gender sensitive toilets, and procure additional basic farming tools.