Farmers get help to attain self-sufficiency

US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Lutheran World Service (LWS)have launched a project to increase the yields of farmers in Liberia’s Bomi, Lower Lofa and Nimba counties, LWS Project Manager Yarsiah Weedor told IRIN on Monday. The project, which began on 1 October, aims to help farmers in the target area to become self-sufficient, Weedor said. He said the project was being first being implemented in the Tappita District of Nimba County. “Presently, we cannot go into Lower and Upper Lofa county because of the security situation,” he said. The project has four components: a seed-multiplication initiative in rice, roots, tubers and vegetables; producing cocoa and coffee nursery seedlings; building and repairing bridges and roads, and producing farming simple implements; livestock farming. Farmers will be given goats, sheep and chicken. The farmers will then be expected to pass on the offspring of these animals to other communities, which will continue the process. Weedor said 30,000 farm families were to be covered by the project. LWS is contributing US $189,590 of the US $1.27 million-project and USAID the rest.