By Precious D. Freeman
The students of Aware International School System located in Paynesville have joyfully displayed vegetable products from their Agri-various on the campus.
The agricultural exhibition held under the theme ‘Agriculture for Self-Reliance,’ was a great opportunity for students to showcase their agricultural skills and display their vegetable products as well as some creatively made working models of machines and devices, while others made art and crafts from recycled materials.
The program held over the weekend focused on promoting sustainable and affordable food production among students and the people of Liberia and with the great success of the exhibition, it was clear that the students put a lot of hard work into their projects.
The judges were impressed with the creativity and innovation of the students, and it was a testament to the hard work and creativity of the students at Aware International School System.
Speaking on behalf of the guest speaker at the occasion, the Assistant Minister for Agriculture, Folton Blasin, praised the administration for instilling in the students a profound sense of reverence for agriculture, imparting knowledge about cultivation methods.
Minister Blasin assured the students of the government’s commitment to supporting the establishment of an agricultural club in the school and other schools nationwide.
According to the Minister, the government has already launched the University and Community Colleges’ agricultural farms at the University of Liberia, stating, “We will ensure that all public universities and community colleges have agriculture farms where students will have practical agricultural knowledge upon graduation, and we will also do it differently this time around.”
Blasin noted that to make the economy self-reliant, achieving self-reliance and self-sustainability in agriculture depends not only on infrastructure and governance reform, but also on decreasing the Agri-imports bill and increasing farmers’ income.
He noted that agriculture is a major sector of the country’s economy, worth 38.8 percent of the GDP. “It employs more than 70 percent of the population and provides a valuable export for one of the world’s least developed countries as defined by the UN. It also forms the basis of many other economies.”
He said he has realized that the smallholder farmers who worked to meet the food requirements of the ever-growing population of the country lack basic amenities and resources.
“This administration will adopt the value-chain approach to agriculture development and take specific actions to develop the value-chains of targeted agricultural commodities that support national food self-sufficiency and the development of the national economy,” the Minister added.
Both, Blasin, Assistant Minister, and Clifford Konah, Assistant Minister for Teacher Education at the Ministry of Education, visited each of the students’ exhibits, carefully inspecting what they had produced.
Ministers Blasin and Konah were notably impressed with the students’ agricultural abilities as they took in the luxuriant vegetation that filled the hall.
Aware International School System is an Indian run institution located on the GSA Road, in Paynesville.
