Liberia is expected to begin the construction of major farming seed banks for the first time after several decades in Salayea and Zorzor districts, Lofa County as part of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) pilot agriculture program.
The initiative when completed will further increase seeds production to support farmers in the two district and the entire Country.
This will reduce difficulty faced by farmers in accessing seeds to increase production.
The various facilities including seed Banks and demonstration sites will be built by a local NGO, the Liberia Endangered Species Association (LESA) in Zorzor and Salayea with funding from the United Nations Development Programme-Liberia office.
The initiative is held under the project “promoting Traditional Agro-Ecological Farming Systems in North-Western Liberia”.
LESA Executive Director John Kannah told Environmental reporters that the seed bank project is intended to empower local farmers by having access to seeds to boost their farming activities and promote traditional Agro- ecological practice as well as biodiversity conservation.
According to him, about 250 farmers the project communities of Zorzor and Salayea will directly benefit from the seed banks project while more than 1,500 others will be indirectly impacted by the project.
Mr. Kannah further urged residents in the project communities to take the activities seriously and said useful farming seeds will be supplied to farmers across Liberia to enable them contribute food security in rural Liberia.
Citizens of Zorzor and Salayea Districts ,however, commended LESA for the initiative and pledged their unflinching support to the realization of the project.
They expressed happiness that the project will further ease the difficulty encounter to get seeds during their planting season.
For his part, the Manager of Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) project at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Christopher B. Kabah admonished Liberian farmers especially Lofa County to take advantage of evolving technology and any other method to improve production in Liberia.
Kaba said using new method in farming such as the preservation of seeds will enhance production.
What are project objectives?
LESA Executive Director John Kannah assured residents of the project communities that the project will promote side by side both traditional agro-ecological farming system and farming technology to ensue best practices in the Country agriculture sector, such as cocoa, rubber, oil palm and coffee.
The significance of the project is to encourage household participation in the development of seedbank in zorzor and Salayea districts.
Two demonstration sites in the two Districts will be constructed to introduce varieties of seeds for onwards distribution among farmers and establish community ecological governance council in the project community to ensure effectiveness and productivity.
Kannah added that the project will encourage seeds festival program each year, introduce research groups and produce seed maps for communities in the area to easily locate seeds for planting.
Comments are closed.