A harvest field day was held in Saclepea,
Nimba County, Liberia on 22 January to harvest rice planted under the South–South
Cooperation Project funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The field day was attended by Dr Sizi Subah (Deputy Minister), Paul Jallah
(Assistant Minister), the City Mayor of Saclepea, all the South–South
Cooperation Project farmer groups from Nimba, the Marketing Association of
Nimba, the youth group and other interested farmers. Also present were Nimba county
traditional harvesters, singers and dancers.
The project was implemented in three counties
— Montserado, Bong and Nimba — by the Central Agricultural Research Institute
(CARI) with backstopping by AfricaRice through the African Rice Initiative
(ARI). The total area of rice planted in the three Counties in 2010 was 40 ha.
The day’s harvest covered 10 ha and the estimated yields were 4 tonnes from 2
ha of variety Suakoko-8 (2 t/ha) and 20 tonnes from 5 ha of NERICA-L-19 (i.e. 4
t/ha). The project was so successful that many farmers were eager to join as
beneficiaries in 2011.
