Liberia: Agrotech Campaigns for More Public Attention Towards Food Production

Agrotech Liberia, an agriculture youth development organization promoting and creating awareness around Sustainable Development Goal 2 and other food security instruments, has launched a nationwide one-month campaign aimed at drawing more public attention towards food production. 

The “Let’s Feed Us” campaign is an annual public engagement activity carried out by the organization to create awareness around Liberia’s food system to attract necessary interest and attention in line with several food security frameworks, including the global SDG 2, the Malabo Declaration for Food and Nutrition Security, the Liberia Agriculture Sector Investment Plan (LASIPII), and the Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development, pillar two on agriculture, among others. 

According to the Lead Campaigner, Jonathan S. Stewart, Agrotech believes that these agriculture and food system development frameworks developed by the global, regional, and national policymaking bodies are comprehensive, ambitious, and inclusive, but have been placed on the shelf for decades with little action taken by many of the nations, including Liberia. 

In this regard, Stewart said his organization has launched the campaign to call on national and local leaders, the business community, academics, and civil society organizations to pay more attention to making the issue of rights and access to food a national priority item in the economic and social development agenda and processes of the nation. 

Stewart, however, disclosed that the engagement will take place nationwide through established   structures of food system actors and grassroots based agriculture organizations interested in and contributing to the fight against hunger in Liberia. 

“There will be a series of activities targeting all Liberians as the issue of food concerns everyone, Individually and collectively, action must be taken to make Liberia food self-sufficient,” he stated. 

The Agrotech director stated that with a 33.3 percent score on the Global Hunger Index and 38.5 percent undernutrition, and Liberia being among the countries with the highest stunting rate in the region, the country must see and do agriculture differently with a mind of emergency and business opportunity. 

He also indicated that the low interest from the general public regarding the food production system is due to the lack of access to relevant information on the status of Liberia's food security and the opportunities for investment in the agriculture sector for entrepreneurs and farmers. 

The organization has embarked on a campaign to ensure that youth perceptions of agriculture become positive, public policy and programs for the agriculture sector are increased, the nation experiences an increase in food production (availability, access, and affordability), and public knowledge of agriculture as a business is also increased.