MONROVIA, December 16 (LINA)-The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), says with support from the Econet Development Foundation, and in response to the looming food crisis in Liberia, its Program for African Seed Systems (PASS) will intensify its work by increasing access to high quality seed.
A dispatch from the African Press Organization (APO) issued on behalf of AGRA, said the decision was taken to improve agricultural practice and food availability for Liberian smallholder farmers.
According to PASS Director Joe DeVries, “We will work in partnership with the Ministries of Agriculture and Health, private seed companies, national farmer organizations and other local partners to ensure that the support provided gets to the targeted farmers.”
While this round of seeds is distributed freely, given the financial pressures faced by farmers, this initiative is part of the comprehensive approach that AGRA takes to ensure better food systems by creating seed companies and training agro-dealers to create the proper market incentives to ensure long-term economic sustainability, the dispatch said.
Through previous support from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the dispatch continues, PASS has worked to build a sustainable seed system
based on farmers’ demand for quality seeds. The organization is currently supporting three local seed companies to produce, multiply, and make quality seeds available to farmers.
PASS has also provided funding to the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI) to research on staples such as rice, cassava, and maize in order to improve agriculture productivity.
The dispatch also disclosed that PASS has trained eight Liberian seed specialists at the Kwame Nkrumah University for Science and Technology in Ghana, in a bid to ensure that smallholder farmers in the country break away from using low-yielding seeds to high-yielding ones.
AGRA is a dynamic partnership working across the African continent to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families lift themselves out of poverty and hunger.
LINA