Her Excellency, Jewel Howard Taylor-Vice President, Republic of Liberia

Hon. Robert Fagans, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Agriculture

Hon. Debra Nebo, Deputy Minister for Small Business Administration, Ministry of Commerce & Industry  

Other high-level officials of government present

Development partners, Farmers Organization

Ladies and gentlemen.

Allow me to acknowledge and applaud the Ministry of Commerce & Industry for its leadership in managing the Livelihood and Employment Creation project and recognize the existing partnership and collaboration between the UNDP, Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) other development partners in supporting Liberia’s agriculture sector.

Let me also appreciate the role of the Community of Hope Agriculture Practice -CHAP in the implementation of the project in keeping with the grant objectives.

To eliminate extreme poverty, end hunger and malnutrition in Liberia, there is a need to scale up support to small farmers and cooperatives.

Making quality farm inputs available can play a major role in motivating development, reducing hunger and poverty, and promoting stability in a post-conflict country like Liberia.

We must accelerate investment in research and extension systems and encourage private and public extension systems to help spur agricultural transformation beginning at the community level to ensure that households have access to good agriculture inputs that can produce quality nutritious food.

We must empower local farmers to use climate-smart agricultural practices that provide safeguards for their farm investments.

Through our MSME agriculture financing facility, UNDP looks forward to working with the MOA and other partners to address some of the key challenges affecting access to farm inputs and finance for local farmers.

Thank you!