Over 40 Agriculture County and District Coordinators have committed to mainstreaming gender in agriculture activities.
They made the commitment at the close of a two-day Gender Responsive Planning and Extension Service Delivery Training organized by the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in an effort to increase awareness of Gender-Responsive Agriculture Extension Services and ensure support for women farmers across Liberia.
The training is under a component of the World Bank US$44.6 million Project titled: ‘Liberia Women Empowerment Project currently being implemented by the Ministry of Gender.’
Component 4 of the LWEP focuses on strengthening public institutions to enhance gender equality.
The training workshop which took place from January 7-8, 2025 in Gompa City, Nimba County, brought together technicians, gender social inclusion units’ experts, and agriculture extension officers.
The training was aimed at equipping agriculture technicians with the needed skills to improve leadership roles within agriculture activities across the country.
Speaking at the end of the training, the participants stated that the workshop provided them with the necessary technical skills and knowledge to serve as training trainers (TOT) in their various counties and districts.
“This training is timely and well appreciated,” Gbarpolu County Agriculture Coordinator, Key Sumo, stated.
He also promised to visit the rural parts of the county, including districts, and towns, and to transfer the knowledge he had acquired with local farmers and others involved in agricultural activities.
According to him, these ideas will address gender balance in the Liberian agriculture sector and increase food productivity. “We will also ensure that tools ordered for farming activities will be gender-sensitive, especially at the advantage of women to address gender responsiveness”.
The Agriculture Coordinator of Grand Gedeh County, Nounou Sharty, while acknowledging the Liberia Women Empowerment Project (LWEP) being implemented in her county, termed the training as very important.
“As this project is helping rural women to build their economic capacities, the training, too, will also help us to interact with the women and to deal with gender-related issues,” she added.
Madam Sharty stated that the workshop had shaped her initial perception about gender. “To be very frank from the training, we were made to understand that gender is not just about the human being, but the way we think”.
Meanwhile, participants at the workshop made several key recommendations to the government aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity in the country.
Key among the recommendations included a call to the Liberian government to hugely support local farmers with the necessary machines and financial resources to transition from subsistence farming to merchandise farming.
They also call on the government to allocate better funding, provide the needed farming materials, and address other key challenges that serve as potential obstacles to the progress of farming in our country.
The participants urged the government to also extend such training initiatives to women and men who are into farming activities, adding that such a move will give those farmers a sense of belongingness and motivate their efforts to increase productivity.
The participants expressed gratitude to the organizers of the training workshop and promised to share the knowledge with other farmers at the local level for the purpose of boosting food production in the country in line with the government’s ARREST Agenda.
