Direct delivery projects miss the mark for agricultural development in Liberia

Systems approaches offer a promising alternative for sustained growth.

Quality seeds, fertilizers, and agro-chemicals are a critical ingredient in highly productive farming. In Liberia, though, these agro-inputs have been difficult to find and expensive when available. The agronomic advice that necessarily accompanies them? Largely absent.

For decades, many development projects in Liberia have approached this problem by providing agro-inputs and agronomic training directly to farmers – even importing required seeds, fertilizers, and agro-chemicals directly from overseas for distribution to farmers themselves. Though this might have boosted productivity in the short-term, when these projects closed, farmers were unable to find inputs and advice locally that they had come to rely on for their food production.

It’s time for a change.

A systemic development approach is new but needed in Liberia. One example of this is GROW Liberia’s approach to agro-input market development. Here, GROW has worked to develop commercially-viable agro-dealer and sales agent distribution and advisory that increase seed, fertilizer, and agro-chemical availability with increasing decentralization. At the same time, GROW has collaborated with an industry association and government agencies to pilot a duty waiver for inputs – zeroing out local taxes that were once as high as 24.5%, rendering products unaffordable for farmers. And, GROW has also attracted the first farmer-focused distributor into Liberia, with the ambition to bring in more.

A systemic, market-driven development approach preferences sustained, commercial and scalable impact that continues long after the close of a project. GROW’s agro-input market development is just underway, with much more to go before Liberia’s farmers have the goods and guidance they need and can afford. It is a step in the right direction, however. More projects should follow suit with considerations of longevity and commercial viability that ensure growth and development in their absence.

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