Liberia

General Information

· Main climates: Tropical Wet, Tropical Wet and Dry

· Total land area: 9 675 000 ha

· Internal renewable water resources: 200 km³

· Incoming water flow: 32 km³

· GNP per capita, 1998: PPP$ -

· Main food consumed: Rice, Roots & tubers, Oil & fat, Fruits, Sugar

· Rice supply, 1999: 82.3 kg paddy/capita/year

Basic Statistics

Producing Zones and Cropping Seasons

Rice is planted in almost all places. The following table shows the harvested areas from different production zones.

Rice is generally planted once a year under rainfed conditions.

Production Practices

The following figure shows the harvested areas from different ecologies during the last five years.

Upland rice is grown as a mono-crop or as in a mixture with other food crops following the slash-and-burn shifting cultivation almost without any application of chemical fertilizer and other ago-chemical. Women cultivate small fields (from few hundred to few thousand square meters) of lowland rice. Rice-fallow and rice-other crops are practised in rainfed lowland rice depending on water supply situation. A number of rice varieties have been released for cultivation.

Land preparation for lowland rice is done either manually or with animal traction. Transplanting is the main method of crop establishment. At present, farmers generally apply little fertilizer to rice. Weeding is generally done manually, although the use of herbicides is increasing in irrigated rice. Farmers do not have adequate appropriate tools and equipment for harvesting and threshing of rice. The following table shows the results of rice responses to fertilizer application conducted in the past.

Constraints and Issues of Sustainable Production

There are several constraints to sustainable rice production in Liberia. Following are the majors:

• Dominant of upland shifting cultivation.

• Drought stresses, lows soil fertility, erosion of soil and soil fertility in upland areas Blast and weed competition.

• Poor drainage, Iron toxicity in undeveloped swamps.

• Inadequate and Irregular input supplies: seeds, fertilizer and credit.

• Lack of small farm equipment especially for post harvest operations.

• Lack of a well-defined rice policy.

• Poor road networks and marketing systems.

• Weak research and extension support.

• Recently, the deterioration of security situation.

The country is recovering from war. Sustainable rice production would depend greatly on the formulation of appropriate policy. The improvement and development of lowland rice with improved water control would be essential.

Research and Development Institutes

· Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI) P.O. Box 3929, Suakoko, Monrovia 1000.

· Central Agricultural Experiment Station Suakoko, Bong County

· Ministry of Agriculture Division of Plant Sciences P.O. Box 9010 Monrovia

· Minister for Sectoral & Regional Planning, Ministry of Planning & Economic Affairs, P.O. Box 9016, Monrovia, Tel.: (231) 227702, Fax: (231) 226075

· Planning & Policy, Ministry of Agriculture, 5^th Street Tubman Boulevard, Monrovia, Tel.: (231) 227368, Fax: (231) 226075