Food for Life in Liberia

There is twice as much food as we need to feed the world, yet over 850 million people go hungry every day and their numbers are increasing. It is estimated that 16,000 children are dying from hunger every day – that is one child every 5 seconds. It also impacts their education, without an income many parents cannot afford to send their children to school. About 70% of the world’s hungry live in rural areas and depend on land, water and seeds for a living. Without access to these resources they are unable to grow or buy enough food to support their families and face a daily struggle to survive.

Liberia is recovering from more than two decades of civil war. More than 200,000 people were killed in the conflict and around a third of the population were forced from their homes. The conflict has left the country in economic ruin, leaving 36% of the population living on less than $1 a day.

Agriculture is a way of life for the people of Liberia and before the war it contributed to over 50% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, the conflict devastated the country’s food and crop production capacity and left farmers and their families without access to food or a livelihood.

This Priority Project is designed to support the resettlement of war affected families by revitalizing local agricultural practices, increasing food and livelihood security. The project area takes place in the districts of Tewor and Porkpa in Grand Cape Mount County, where over 90% of the population is involved in subsistence farming practices growing mainly rice and vegetable crops.

This project aims to provide a long term source of food for these family farmers by providing them with seeds, planting materials, tools and technical skills to start farming again, to not only feed themselves and their families, but also as a livelihood allowing them to settle and rebuild their lives.

What Your Support Has Achieved

Over the last year the impact on the lives of the farmers involved in the project can be clearly shown by the fact the project has directly helped 245 family farmers, through training and provision of materials. The impact of your support does not however stop there. The farmers’ ability to have access to food and a livelihood means that their families, totalling 1,104 people in all, now have enough to eat and can access basic healthcare and education.

Other project impacts include:

Deeper Understanding Of Good Farming Practices

The group training sessions and the provision of farming materials has meant that the farmers have learnt the best farming practices for their environment, allowing them to maximise crop return and guarantee food security. The skills and techniques learnt are then transferred to family members, ensuring that your money will continue to have an impact in future years.

Increased Community Participation

By working with the community and encouraging group participation through the group training session there has been strong support for, and shared ownership of the project within all the communities involved. This was demonstrated by the full participation of the District committees (DDC’s) in the selection and recruitment process of the Field Technicians and the participation of over 95% of farmers in the training and farming activities.

Equal Participation Of Women Farmers

The project has particularly encouraged the participation of women farmers in the project, as often farming is their responsibility and is their only hope of bringing in an income and supporting their families. As well as offering training on good farming techiques, the group sessions also aim to offer the women farmers advice and information about nutrition and hygiene practices to ensure their families health and future food security is preserved.

Generation of a Livelihood

The key achievement of the project to date is that over 90% of the beneficiaries used harvest from their rice and vegetable crop farms to feed their families and had enough to sell a portion of their harvest, enabling them to access an income.

Access To An Education

Able to access an income, the farmers all said that the income they were generating was being used to send their children to school and support their needs by purchasing uniform, school books and paying for their registration fees.

Looking Forward

With your support, the training provided to the family farmers has made a fantastic start in equipping them with the knowledge, skills and materials to help them produce regular harvests, with guaranteed crop returns. With enough food to feed their families, the farmers have also been able to afford the school books and fees they need to send their children to school. However, the project is only half way through and we still need your support and fundraising to ensure the programme can be completed and we reach more family farmers securing their access to food and livelihood.

With your continued support in 2008 we hope to:

• Provide the farmers who benefited from the training during 2007 with post-harvest management training, building their skills and knowledge further, securing their access to food for the long-term.
• Expand the project to benefit 2 new districts and 7 new communities.
• Identify and register 245 new farm families to receive the agricultural training and farming tools, materials and seed.

$25 could provide five farm families seeds and tools to rebuild their livelihoods.

$75 could allow 100 farm families to attend small business management workshops.

$250 could provide 100 farm families with hand gloves.

$500 could provide 50 farm families with hoes and diggers.

$1,000 could provide enough wheelbarrows and grass cutters for 50 farm families.

$3,000 could construct two drying floors which will preserve future food produce for 2,400 people.

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Program Areas

• International Policy
• Food Rights
• Women's Rights
• Emergencies
• HIV and AIDS
• Education

Special Issues

• IMF Project
• Climate Change
• Priority Projects

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