For the past 2 years, Chinese SSC team has introduced and transferred 92 appropriate and effective technologies, introduced 33 new varieties of crops, such as vegetables, corn and seedless watermelon etc., carried out 24 pilot demonstrations, developed and delivered 6261 copies of training manuals, and carried out practical and theoretical training 743 times. Chinese team has trained 38 Liberian counterparts and 1395 farmers and technicians. The number of beneficiaries, including farmers and technicians, reached 1547. The Chinese team has accomplished the following 6 main activities: 

I. Carried out field investigation and developed work plan.

In the first 2 months, Chinese team carried out 220 field investigations, visited and interviewed 769 farming households and 13 large farms and collected the baseline information about local agricultural development, climate, technology, water resources, agro-product processing and market, and labor force etc. and developed 29 research reports, 23 individual workplans and 2 overall annual workplans. The overall annual workplans were approved by FAO office in Liberia and Liberian MOA and put into practice successfully.

 

A meeting with local farmers  Field investigation

II. Trained Liberian counterparts/agriculture professional technicians.

The talented agricultural personnel, especially both in practical skills and in management, are deficient due to Liberian civil war.  In view of above reasons, Liberian MOA recently began to focus on training of agriculture professional technicians and not only selected carefully 38 college/university graduates as counterparts/agriculture professional technicians for the two-year professional training in SSC project sites, but also sent some of these trained counterparts to many foreign countries for agriculture technical training. The aim is to expect all these agricultural elites to use their learnt practical skills to train local technicians and farmers, and as a result, to promote the agricultural development in Liberian as a whole.

In the last 2 years, Chinese SSC team has trained Liberian counterparts on effective and practical skills systematically. For theoretical training, starting from the urgent need in agriculture, Chinese SSC team selected and transferred 92 practical technologies, such as non-tray rice seedling raising in dry-bed nursery with parachute transplanting, seedless watermelon cultivation, raising vigorous vegetable seedlings, field management and integrated control of diseases and insects in vegetable gardens, direct seeding and close planting of maize, storing compost, operation and maintenance of small-size power tiller, livestock and fish production and so on. The Chinese team developed and delivered 69 kinds of training materials, and held more than 120 workshops. Most trainees have systematically mastered Chinese agricultural practical skills. For practical training, based on the principle of "Learning by doing", the Chinese SSC team has carried out 135 on-farm practical trainings, and at the same time, the Chinese SSC team guided the Liberian counterparts to engage in technical transference to local farmers. In July, 2013, Chinese SSC team also organized a written examination to review all the technical know-how they learnt.

For capacity building, FAO and Liberian MOA specially sent 9 Liberian counterparts to China for an eleven-day study tour, and also held a meeting for the exchange of experience with other counterparts. During the past 2 years, Liberian MOA has also arranged some counterparts for agriculture technical training in India, Japan and other countries. Through many forms of trainings, the counterparts increased their technical know-how and broaden their horizons, which is conducive to the application of Chinese practical skills properly based on the local circumstances.

The ability of the Liberian counterparts has been greatly enhanced. Chinese SSC team, on the one hand, has organized the counterparts to be fully involved in planning, organizing and implementing 21 micro-projects of demonstration. During the process of implementation, Liberian counterparts have successfully borrowed ideas from Chinese experience in agricultural management and production. On the other hand, Chinese SSC team, together with Liberian counterparts, transferred agricultural practical technologies to local community. From the latter half of the year 2013, Liberian counterparts have contacted 122 farming households and transferred more than 70 agricultural practical technologies, which not only help farmers promote production and increase their income, but also increase the work experience and capacity of Liberian counterparts in agro-tech extension.

Achievements and effects of capacity building are obvious. Under the attentive guidance of Chinese SSC team, Liberian counterpart have mastered all kinds of agricultural practical technologies transferred by Chinese team and have had a higher level of theoretical and practical know-how and the capacity in agro-tech extension, which make it possible for them to train more farmers and technicians in the near future. In addition, through comparative test between local varieties and technologies and Chinese varieties and technologies, they gradually know and accept the advantage of Chinese high-yield new varieties and new technologies, and as a result, they have more interest in promoting Chinese new varieties and new technologies. Furthermore, through the involvement in construction of demonstration sites and training of farmers in the local communities, they have obtained necessary working experience and acquired the creative idea about how to apply Chinese technologies to the agricultural production effectively. Finally, they consider that the process of agriculture development between China and Liberia has a lot in common and they can draw on the experience from Chinese agriculture. Chinese agricultural technologies are more easily accepted and applied by Liberian farmers.  They hope to get more chance for further exchange and sharing of agro-technologies between two countries.

   

 A lecture on special topics     Theoretical training on rice production

 

 Practical training on animal husbandry Practical training on machinery

 

Practical training on storing compost  Training farmers in the field 

   

Liberian counterparts taking exam  Annual review meeting

 

(To be continued)