Monrovia The United Nations Human Security Trust Fund (UNHSTF) implemented in Nimba, Grand Gedeh, River Gee and Maryland Counties has helped enhance the capacities of rural farmers through sustainable agriculture production.

Madam Meliakeh Suah, Administrator (Rural Women & Girls Promoters for Sustainable Development-RWGP) in Nimba County said with support from FAO, she acquired hands-on agriculture knowledge and technique to improve her skills. “As a group we were encouraged to engage into agriculture when FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture came and provided farming tools and training to our group.”

She noted that from the training and agro equipment provided, they were able to purchase six (6) hectares of lowland for vegetable and rice. “We have our own processing storage that produces locally made gari and fufu.” Speaking at a day-long symposium to showcase achievements made and to critically review three years of implementation of UNHSTF, Madam Suah applauded the effort of the Government of Liberia for working closely with her partners in ensuring that farmers have the most needed assistance to improve their production.

In Nimba where FAO supported nearly 30 farmers in vegetable production and value addition, Lawrence N. Gonsahu member of the Menlehkoyee Farmers’ Cooperative pointed out that with the introduction of Farmer Field School (FFS) by FAO enables them to organize a demonstration site to train member of the group through various techniques that help improve on their production. He also explained that FAO not only provided the FFS training, but provided valuable seeds and tools, business management training.

The UNHSTF project is led by FAO and jointly coordinated WFP, UNFPA, UNWOMEN, ILO, UNICEF as well as the United Nations Mission in Liberia.

FAO and the joint programme

FAO has scored numerous progress to enhance the human security concept through the value added approach ‘’empowerment.’’

This was achieved through improved agriculture production to enhance productivity and increase household income. Under the joint initiative, FAO is jointly implementing 2 of the 7 objectives:

Under objective 2:

To strengthen agriculture based livelihoods of vulnerable population through markets & roads accessibility, skills training, and employment creation jointly implemented by FAO and the International Labour Organization (ILO),FAO in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, 250 local government  officers and community leaders acquired skills to  strengthen existing peace through agriculture production; access to local rice and assorted vegetables as well as food consumption in the 23 targeted communities and surroundings have improved as a result of enhanced productivity.

Objective 5:

To enhance food security among vulnerable communities and smallholder farmers and strengthen the internal governance structure of target local communities and women farmer groups

More than 80% of households especially women headed ones have reported increase in income from sales of agricultural products (rice, vegetables and cassava products); though access to market slightly improved, it remains a challenge that future intervention must help mitigate (FAO - project monthly update)

Moreover, over 100 hectares of lowland have been restored in the four target counties. Currently rehabilitation of irrigation schemes is being concluded. An estimated 500 Mt of lowland rice have been produced from 2016 to 2017. On the average lowlands are harvested 2 times a year using improved varieties like the NL-19. 40 Farmers Field Schools have been established following a week long training of trainers in the methodology and concept. Natural honey is being produced in Kpein Nimba County; this has also increased income of households and is currently an adapted income generating asset for farmers in Kpein.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in May 2018 signed a Letter of Agreement (LoA) with the National Union of Community Forestry Development Committees (NUCFDC) valued over US$80,000 to help strengthen the capacity of communities to effectively monitor the benefits from commercial logging in Liberia. The LoA was done under the framework of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary