Liberia agricultural marketing study

The study finds that the cornerstone of the Government of Liberia"s (GOL) agricultural policy - attaining rice self-sufficiency - has failed, trapping small farmers in a vicious circle: satisfying household rice requirements exhausts the labor available for producing cash crops, while efforts to purchase imported rice exhaust scarce cash resources. The profitability of cash crop production is further constrained by low cocoa and coffee prices, the lack of transportation infrastructure, an inefficient and corrupt marketing system, and an exchange rate policy unfavorable to producers of export crops. Given the paucity of profitable cash crop alternatives, small farmers are forced into subsistence rice farming while obtaining cash income from family members working on rubber estates, in mines, or in urban areas. Arguing the need for external pressure on the GOL to break this vicious circle, the report recommends firmly tying the continuance of P.L. 480 shipments - essential for meeting urban consumers" grain needs - to policy changes. Chief among these are introducing a more market-oriented exchange policy; adjusting domestic rice prices to reflect border price parity; keeping the GOL"s powerful Liberian Produce Marketing Corporation out of rice importing and domestic rice marketing; and liberalizing cocoa and coffee marketing to allow the private sector to compete with the LPMC in buying and selling these commodities.