Liberian president 'aware' of land grabbing complaints

Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is generally treated as democratic hero who has brought a measure of stability and the beginnings of post-war development to her country. In 2011, just before an election that won her a second term, she was the joint recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize.

But her tenure has gradually been dogged by controversy, including charges of nepotism after she appointed three of her sons to senior government positions, and rumours of corruption..  

Also increasingly controversial has been the growing perception that Sirleaf's government doles out agro-forestry concessions to foreign firms too freely, and that the agreed conditions greatly disadvantage local communities.

Touted by the government as an important element of post-war recovery and development, critics fear that the land leases and local disgruntlement could be creating the conditions for future conflict. Some activists say up to a third of the country's land mass has been leased to investors for logging, plantations and mining.  

During an address in London, England in October, Sirleaf said her government was aware of the complainst and would be reviewing the lease agreements.

African Agriculture

Malaysian palm oil investment in Liberia causes dislocation crisis

It's now an almost boringly familiar story: the central government negotiates to lease huge chunks of fertile countryside to a foreign investor who promises to bring 'develoment,' jobs and many other benefits. Local communities are told little about the land giveaways until they are displaced. Few jobs or other benefits materialize for the locals and resentment sets in.

In this case its about a Malaysian company developing palm oil plantations in Liberia.  

'Angry villagers accuse Sime Darby of cutting a private deal with the government and failing to consult them. Last December, they rioted against the company, seizing its bulldozers and blocking the plantation project. They say their crops are gone and their sacred lands are desecrated. The jobs, they say, are too few and too poorly paid, especially now that they’re forced to buy their food in the marketplace rather than growing it.'

“Everybody made mistakes on this,” Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson told the villagers. “More consultations and more talks with the people should have taken place.”

Considering all the publicity about how frequently these sort of "mistakes" have happened in so many other places before, this sounds pathetically weak coming from the Liberian president. 

While dispossessed farmers are clearly victims, that does not necessarily mean they are innocents in the matter. Lump some payments that were offered and eagerly accepted seemed like a fortune "until the money runs out and they realize they’ve got nothing to fall back on."

One farmer was paid $130 for his two acre farm. We are told he is now contract worker for the palm oil plantation, 'getting 3 cents for every hole that he digs for a palm seedling.' Not only is his income now less than what he is said to have earned before, his loss is far more than just financial. 

Blame poverty, lack of education. But where was the government when its citizens were giving away their heritage for a few pieces of silver? Obviously too busy doing deals with the investor to think of more robust protections for its citizens in signing these deals.


Calling it a "mistake" sounds awfully hollow of the Liberian president.

 African Agriculture

Africa land grabs 'could cause conflict'

The stampede by wealthy states for arable land across Africa and other developing regions could trigger a series of conflicts if governments fail to protect the rights of their people, two recent studies on land grabs warn.

"Controversial land acquisitions were key a factor triggering the civil wars in Sudan, Liberia and Sierra Leone and there is every reason to be concerned that conditions are ripe for new conflicts to occur in many other places," cautioned Jeffrey Hatcher, director of global programs with Rights and Resources Initiative, a US-based non governmental organization.

RRI estimates that a 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa depend on 3.46 billion acres of communally held farmland that has been a primary target of foreign governments and investors seeking to produce food specifically for non-African populations.

In a December 2011 report, the International Land Coalition, a global network of civil society and farmers' organizations, estimated the global rush for land claimed 494 million acres in sub-Saharan Africa in 2000-10.

ILC zeroed in on West Africa, where it said land acquisitions by foreign entities were causing major environmental and agricultural damage along the River Niger, at 2,265 miles the third longest river in Africa after the Nile and the Congo.

On Jan. 20, two Liberian land campaigners wrote in The New York Times that the government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, co-winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, was likely "sowing the seeds of future conflict by handing over huge tracts of land to foreign investors and dispossessing rural Liberians."

They alleged that in 2006-11, Sirleaf "granted more than a third of Liberia's land to private investors to use for logging, mining and agro-industrial enterprises.

"Today, more than 7 million acres have become forestry and agricultural concessions," they said.

Some 1.6 million acres went to the Sime Darby Corp. of Malaysia and Golden Veroleum, a subsidiary of the New York's Verdant Fund L.P.

Local communities in the region, where 150,000 of the 1 million people will be disposed without being consulted or compensated by their government, have temporarily blocked the Malaysian company's plans to plant oil palms on 523,800 acres of land leased from the Freetown government.

The company has reportedly frozen its operations following an appeal to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an international certification body.

more…UPI

Liberia receives $25 million loan for cocoa, coffee sectors

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will provide a US$24.9 million loan to the  Liberia to improve food security and reduce post conflict poverty in rural communities.

The loan agreement for the Smallholder Tree Crop Revitalisation Support Project will aim to increase the incomes of cocoa and coffee producers by raising the quantity of produce sold.

The project will revitalize 50 per cent of existing plantations and restore 315 kilometres of rural road networks to improve access to market centres for more than 280,000 people. In addition, the project will strengthen both the private sector and extension services to smallholder farmer cooperatives by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The project will reach out to the most vulnerable rural farming households in Lofa County, where the highest number of smallholder cocoa and coffee producers live; most of Liberia's poor people live in this area. More than 15,000 smallholder cocoa and coffee farmers, of which half are women, will benefit directly from the project.

With this new project, IFAD will have financed 5 programmes and projects in Liberia for a total investment of $38.3 million benefitting 30,000 households.

International Fund for Agricultural Development

Agriculture may help brighten Liberia's future

by Richard Valdmanis


Big mining and agriculture projects will fuel a rapid economic expansion in Liberia in the coming years, but the country faces challenges ensuring the boom will help ordinary Liberians.

The stakes are high for the West African state, which has attracted billions of dollars in resource investment since the end of a 1989-2003 civil war, but whose infrastructure remains in ruins and most of its 4 million people in poverty.

"In a way, it is an issue of national security," said Yuri Sobolev, the IMF's country representative in Liberia. "It is urban, underemployed youth. You need to give them some jobs, some stake in the future."

Newly re-elected President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has promised to cut the poverty rate, build infrastructure and boost employment during her second term, and silence critics who say she failed to do that in her first mandate. She also predicted years of double-digit economic growth on the back of resource development, a prediction analysts say is feasible if the country's many iron ore, palm oil and forestry projects start on schedule.

"The general prosperity of Liberians will be sharply enhanced," she said following the November 8 poll, marred by deadly clashes between opposition supporters and security forces, and a boycott by Johnson-Sirleaf's main rival.

But success will mean beating the "resource curse" that has afflicted many other African states, bringing insecurity and rampant levels of official corruption to oil producers like Nigeria and Angola and top bauxite supplier Guinea.

ArcelorMittal, the world's top steel maker, recently made Liberia's first iron ore shipment since the end of fighting and has plans for a big expansion in its operations. BHP Billiton, Affero, and China Union are also developing mining projects, while Firestone and Sime Darby are ploughing money into agribusiness.

The IMF's Sobolev said he expects Liberia's GDP growth to hit between 7 and 10 percent during 2011 and 2012 thanks to the resource projects. The government is now in a race to finalise new revenue management laws that will guide how the earnings from those resources are spent.

"Mining is very capital intensive. There may be some downstream supply chain activities that could provide jobs and other opportunities for Liberian businesses, but ultimately it is the revenue generated by those concessions that will allow the government to undertake major infrastructure projects," said Sobolev.
"If you don't have roads or electricity, it is hard to get a business going. That's why the issue of managing natural resource revenues is important," he said.


There is one place in Liberia where everyone has a job, healthcare and education are free, and sacks of rice are sold at 20 percent of the market price. Welcome to the 119,000-acre (48,000 hectare) Firestone rubber plantation.

"We are in Liberia. But we are mostly self-sufficient," Firestone spokesman Rufus Karmorh said in Harbel, a town within Firestone's concession about an hour's drive outside Monrovia.

Firestone with its 7,000 employees is replanting 3,500 acres of rubber trees in Liberia in an effort to push production back up to pre-war levels. Current output from the plantation is about 30,000 gallons (114,000 litres) of natural rubber per day, about 25 percent below pre-war levels, according to production manager Steve Snoh. But he added that official output was crimped by rampant theft by residents of neighbouring villages, where the harsh realities of Liberia's real economy are more evident.

But the challenge of readying Liberians for skilled jobs in these and other emerging industries is huge, according to Johnson-Sirleaf, and vital to ensuring the country retains some of the wealth from its exploited resources.

"Many of those young men, many are ex-combatants, many have been child soldiers, many have been bypassed on their education and their skills," she said. "That's what we have to address. Give them training, give them skills, get them jobs, get them involved in positive endeavours."

"Just look at where the country started in terms of institutions, either non-existent or destroyed, including the loss of human capital," said Sobolev. "The challenge for the administration is to manage expectations. It is not easy to address, but you can not get the house without the foundation."

 
Reuters

South African farmers shun Libya investment; target Sudan, Egypt

by Brian Latham

 South Africa’s biggest farmers union, Agri SA, said its members are seeking to expand into Egypt, Morocco and Sudan while putting plans to enter Libya on hold because of violence in that country.

Members of the Pretoria-based union are already producing grapes in Egypt’s Aswan region and are considering olive farming and processing ventures in Morocco and sugar and banana operations in Sudan, Theo de Jager, who heads the union’s Africa committee, said in an interview. An agreement to farm land in Congo Republic has already been brokered and sugar operations are being considered in Mozambique, he said.

The union, which has 70,000 members, is hoping to profit from growing demand in Africa and to compete more effectively on the international market by investing in countries where the climate and location may help them undercut rivals in South America.

“We hope to end the competitive advantage they have over us,” de Jager said from Tzaneen, a fruit-farming town in eastern South Africa. Expansion into Libya has been “put on the back burner” by farmers who had hoped to profit from a yet to be ratified bilateral trade agreement between the country and South Africa, he said.

Most farmers will have the operations in new countries run by managers rather than emigrating, he said.

“There are South Africans opening up in Egypt, with one of our biggest grape farmers and others farming in the Aswan region,” De Jager said. “The farmers in northern Sudan should be able to utilize a preferential sugar trade agreement between Arab nations.”

Investment plans in Congo Republic, where the agriculture ministry will allocate about 172,000 hectares (425,012 acres) of land to 17 South African farming syndicates, are focused on producing grain and red meat for the local market and fruit for export.

“The farmers will grow tropical fruit and hopefully give us an edge against farmers in South America where they traditionally beat us to the European markets by about a week,” he said.

The union hopes to soon conclude talks over 50-year land leases in Mozambique week as part of a plan to grow sugar for biofuel plants, tropical fruit and livestock, de Jager said.

The union has turned down opportunities in Canada and Europe, he said.

A rival union, Tau SA, has concluded an agreement to send farmers who want to leave South Africa to Georgia.

South African farmers are the continent’s biggest producers of corn, grapes, wine and sugar and the world’s second-biggest citrus fruit exporter after Spain.

Businessweek

UN helps Liberia rehabilitate swamplands for food production

The United Nations agriculture agency and the European Community are supporting Liberia in rehabilitating its fertile lowlands, which cover one fifth of the West African country, to cut the nation’s dependence on rice imports and improve the livelihood of vulnerable farming families.

Considering that lowland farms have the potential to yield up to 80 to 90 per cent more rice than upland ones, the Liberian Government has prioritized the rehabilitation of swamps, especially those with damaged or abandoned rice fields.

“In the swamps, you can grow two, three crops of rice per year, compared to just one per year on upland slopes,” said Sheku Kamara, an agricultural engineer with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

By contrast, “with upland rice… you have to move to another area after each harvest, then you slash and burn to clear brush and trees, then you move to another area and you repeat that.”

Mr. Kamara has provided technical support for a 2,000-hectare swamp and irrigation rehabilitation project funded by the European Union.

FAO has distributed rice seeds, fertilizers and pest management supplies to 10,000 vulnerable rural households under the initiative. It is also supporting school garden projects and vegetable growers with materials, training and technical assistance.

The agency’s technical support to the Government includes training to improve the quality of extension services, strengthen the capacity of employees to conduct crop surveys, and revive the national system for producing, testing and storing seeds.

While rice production in Liberia has increased significantly since the end of its 14-year civil war in 2003, the percentage of rice that is imported remains high. According to Government figures, Liberia continues to imports 60 per cent of the rice it consumes.

Up to 5,000 men and women in Bong, Nimba and Lofa counties, many of whom fled rural farms during the civil war, are participating in the new initiative. They are reviving defunct lowland farms, repairing irrigation systems, and receiving training in sustainable farming techniques.

“During the war, we went away,” said Bendu Bendeh, a resident of Samay in Bong County. “After that, we had no money, no way to work.”

Today, Ms. Bendeh stands on swampland that she and her neighbours have rehabilitated.

“Now we know how to set up the bunds,” she said, referring to the dirt embankments that criss-cross the fields and serve as a form of irrigation control, work platforms and footpaths. Ms. Bendeh also received seeds, tools, fertilizer and pest management supplies. “We were taught how to take rice from a nursery and transplant the seedlings for a better crop,” she added.


UN

African Development Bank signs Liberia agricultural recovery grant

by Edwin Fayia, III

Following an extensive discussion with senior Government officials in late August, visiting African Development Bank (ADB) vice president Dr. Kamal El Kheshen and party signed a US$18.24 million grant for the agriculture sector of Southeastern Liberia. The signing was done in Monrovia.

This agriculture grant, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF) officials and ADB executives, is intended to support the 'Agriculture Sector Rehabilitation Project' (ASRP) in Southeastern Liberia.

Speaking after the signing ceremony held at the MOF, the ADB vice president said: “This constitutes 78 percent of the total cost of the program which is co-financed with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Liberian Government.”

Dr. Kheshen also extolled the excellent relations between the Bank and government owing to sound economic policies and progress made across the country. He added: “This was the first operation which the Bank provided to post-conflict development efforts, directed at Liberia's agriculture sector.”

The ADB top official noted that about 9,600 rural households are expected to directly benefit from the program. “The key benefits,” Dr. Kheshen intimated, “include 100 kilometers of feeder road, improved water management infrastructure for 1,600 hectares, 16 multifunctional facilities within the four-project counties in the Southeast of the country.”

In addition to rehabilitated office premises and agricultural extension delivery capacity, “the project compliments other ongoing projects and its design fully recognizes and responds to gender, environment and climate change issues,”  Kheshen indicated.

Liberian Observer

Liberia faces many post-war challenges to reviving agriculture

by Boakai Fofana

Nathaniel Ziayee and his family live in a single-room hut built with mud bricks and palm branches, held firmly together by sticks cut from the bushes that surround their small farm.He is a 56-year-old farmer who feeds his wife and nine children on what he earns from his plot of land in lower Margibi, just outside the Liberian capital, Monrovia.

“The government needs to come and help us kill the germs so we can get food to eat,” Ziayee says about the pests that hinder farming activities here. But he and his neighbors are not content just to eke out a daily living through subsistence farming. “I want to send food to the market this year,” says Ziayee.

Liberia’s climate is tropical and humid, with heavy downpours occurring during the six-month rainy season. It has one of the largest rainforests in Africa. Before the outbreak of civil war in 1989, many people took to agriculture as government campaigns encouraged people to “go back to the soil.” Crops from large farms further inland were brought to urban markets in large trucks. Students used school breaks to help relatives make farms. But during the war many people fled their farms, and fighters often ransacked the property, crops and produce that were left behind.

The war ended in 2003 and efforts are underway to rehabilitate the agriculture sector. Although agriculture is one area that the government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf hopes will spur economic growth and reduce poverty, the challenges are many. In 2008, the Agriculture Ministry listed low productivity and poor profit, crop pests and the lack of good road networks as some major factors affecting the sector’s development.

“Now we are planting all over here - plantain, pineapple and all sorts of fruits,” says Esther Gayou, a middle-aged farmer and mother of five. “My husband is not working. He has to go in the swamp and cut bamboo for us to [be able to] eat.” With her daughter on her lap, Gayou is emotional as she describes growing crops for her family, only to find “the ants were eating them up.” She said she sometimes buys pesticide with the little money she has, but it is not sufficient. However, Gayou says she is lucky not to have land near a swamp, as do some of her friends who were having difficulty planting crops.

The problem of swampy land is one that Agriculture Minister Florence Chenoeth wants to address. At a meeting in New York in September, she told representatives of U.S. foundations involved in Liberia that the swamps pose health as well as logistical problems for farmers, most of whom are women. The rate of malaria infection is higher in the wet areas, she said, and drainage projects are urgently needed – a challenge the foundations agreed to address.

A poverty assessment report completed last August by the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services shows that poverty remains especially pervasive in rural areas. The Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA) report lists poverty indicators such as poor housing, inadequate food and limited or no income. The report shows a 71 percent poverty level among crop farmers.

However, Chenoeth says she is confident that Liberia will achieve its farming development goals and food security. Liberia has signed the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), a product of the New Partnership For Africa’s Development (NEPAD), which aims to accelerate agricultural growth and eliminate poverty on the continent.

“Liberia's share of the national budget for agriculture is still less than 3.4 percent,” says Chenoeth. This figure falls short of the 10 percent national budget requirement set by the African Union (AU) to accelerate agricultural development.

Chenoeth believes that reaching the AU goal can accelerate Liberia’s overall economic growth by six percent. Agriculture is an integral part of Liberia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, the government’s road map to national economic recovery. Acknowledging the major role agriculture plays in economic growth and the reduction of poverty, the government has pledged to increase resources to the sector.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are complementing Liberia’s effort to improve agricultural output. Among them is the Agricultural Cooperative Development International and Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (ACDI/VOCA), a U.S. nonprofit that promotes economic activities in developing countries through areas such as food security and agribusiness.

ACDI/VOCA’s project, Livelihood Improvements for Farming Enterprise (LIFE), sharpens the skills of farmers while assisting them with farming equipment and credit access to increase their yields.

“We have seen huge improvements in farmer incomes,” says LIFE project head Robin Wheeler, who believes government and NGO handouts are not sustainable. “What we do is empower people...We help you to do things for yourself.”

“Liberia has tremendous potential for agriculture,” Wheeler adds. “The country has 40 percent of West Africa’s virgin forest. For such a small area, it has unparalleled mineral resources, but the biggest long-term potential resource is agriculture.”

Wheeler believes almost anything can be grown in Liberia's tropical climate, but says a focus on production alone is not going to change things.

“What we need to have is a value-chain focus which looks at the things that are needed in the market and what it takes to get those products there,” he says.

allafrica.com

Agriterra plans to buy Liberian palm oil firm

by Ramkumar

Agricultural sector-focussed Agriterra Ltd said in August it planned to buy West African palm oil company Equatorial Biofuels (Guernsey) Ltd from Equatorial Palm Oil Plc for about $12 million in cash and stock.

The company, which is focussed in central and southern Africa, said Equatorial Biofuels, located in Liberia, would complement its existing grain processing and cattle ranching in Mozambique.

Agriterra, a former oil and gas explorer under the name White Nile Ltd, said it would pay $2.5 million in cash and issue 110 million shares and that it had signed a memorandum of understanding.

"By diversifying our product range to include food stuffs such as crude palm oil, which is used in a plethora of products such as margarine, chocolate and zero-trans fat cooking oil, we enable year round processing of a variety of products," the company said in a statement.

There is potential for early cash flow from EBF from the reactivation of up to 10,000 hectares of existing plantations. EBF has also established strong relationships with local and regional government, with a 50-year investment agreement signed and ratified by the Liberian government, Agriterra said

Reuters

Malaysian conglomerate to develop oil palm, rubber estates in Liberia

by Niluksi Koswanage

Malaysia's biggest company Sime Darby has struck a deal with the Liberian government to develop oil palm and rubber estates in West African nation as land runs out at home and global demand for palm oil surges.

Sime, a conglomerate that owns businesses from plantations to property, said on Monday it would invest an initial $20 million for 10,000 hectares of oil palm estates but an industry source said the investment for the 63-year concession would eventually be $800 million.

"It is increasingly difficult to acquire arable plantation land in Asia and thus it is imperative that new frontiers be sought to meet increasing demand," said Sime Chief Executive Ahmad Zubir Murshid in a statement. "Sime Darby will also have the first mover advantage over future entrants into Liberia in terms of securing choice land."

Sime Darby's Liberian venture is the latest in a series of deals struck by foreign firms and nations with African nations to secure food supplies. The firm will develop 220,000 hectares of land, compared to 100,000 hectares now available for plantations in Malaysia, due to land use restrictions here.

Sime's rival, Singaporean oil palm giant Wilmar International, struck a deal in Africa last year, while Italian firm Fri-el Green is signing a pact with Congo to develop 40,000 hectares of oil palm for biofuels.

Analysts say Sime's investment, expected to speed up agricultural growth in Liberia after years of a civil war that ended in 2003, may be risky.

Oil palm grows naturally in Africa and was imported during British rule to Malaysia, now the world's second largest producer after neighbouring Indonesia.

"We normally view expansion is palm oil positively, but palm oil expension in Liberia is untested," Alain Lai, an analyst with UBS, said in a research note. "Sime Darby's management could have already done its studies, but we believe the quality of labour, infrastructure, and stability of government policies would generally be the key issues," he said.

Interest in expanding palm states, rehabilitating rubber plantations and securing grain supplies has been driving some of the acquisitions in Africa where just 14 percent of the 184 million hectares of arable land are cultivated, according to Food and Agriculture Organisation data.

Such ventures can be potentially risky in Africa where land ownership is an emotive issue.

South Korean firm Daewoo Logistics's plans in Madagascar to lease a million hectares to grow corn and oil palms played a big part in the removal of President Marc Ravalomanana in March and led his successor to end the deal.

Reuters

Liberia's agriculture minister resigns

Liberian Agriculture Minister Christopher Toe has resigned, the information minister announced April 5, amid an ongoing row over funds for victims of crop-destroying caterpillars.

Information Minister Laurence Bropleh said on ELBC radio Toe had resigned and sent his letter of resignation to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who accepted it.

No reason was given for his resignation and when contacted Toe said he could not say more than what the government had announced. "It was a discussion between the President and I and I can't say more than what the government is saying," he said.

As agriculture minister Toe was the head of a special task force set up by the west African Mano River Union countries to combat the invasion of caterpillars, described as the worst such plague in 30 years.

During a tour of affected areas last month Sirleaf expressed anger over the slow pace of aid for affected people when funds had been made available. Three days later Toe called a press conference to say he had not received any money to take care of the victims. Analysts believe that the row could be the reason for his resignation.

The caterpillars are a very destructive pest that attacks a wide range of crops including coffee and cocoa, key cash earners. Over a hundred Liberian villages have so far been affected by the plague and authorities warn that hundreds of thousands of people could face hunger because the caterpillars have devoured all the crops.

Liberia declared a state of emergency and called on the international community to help it deal with the plague, which has also spread to parts of Guinea and threatens Sierra Leone's border region with Liberia.

AFP

Liberia invaded by crop-eating caterpillars again: ministry

Liberia has been hit by a second invasion of crop-destroying caterpillars which have wreaked havoc in the west African nation, agriculture ministry officials said last week.

"We have two weeks maximum to react. We have our teams out on the field preparing to contain the situation," Moses Subah, head of the agriculture ministry's technical team, said.

"We have mobilised experts from the sub-region; experts came from Brazil, from the United States, who provided technical assistance," Agriculture Minister Chris Toe saidd. "Following the spraying of the caterpillars, the 11 teams have been involved in mopping up activities ...as well as the search for adult moths. This exercise has proven very successful in containing further spread."

The first wave of crop destroying caterpillars was identified as Achaea catocaloides, a very destructive pest that attacks a wide range of crops including coffee and cocoa, key cash earners.

Over a hundred Liberian villages have so far been affected by the plague and authorities warn that hundreds of thousands of people could face hunger because the caterpillars have devoured all the crops.

Liberia has declared a state of emergency and called on the international community to help it deal with the plague, which has also spread to parts of Guinea and threatens Sierra Leone's border region with Liberia.

AFP

West African nations team up to fight caterpillars

Four West African nations have joined forces to do battle against a species of caterpillars laying waste to crops in the region. The agriculture ministers from Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast have created a team to look into the threats posed by what are believed to be Achaea catocaloides caterpillars.

Crops in central Liberia and southern Guinea have already been ravaged by the caterpillars, and other countries in the region fear the damage will spread further.

"The five-man technical committee will begin work immediately," the ministers from the four countries forming the Mano River Union said in a statement after meeting in Monrovia on February 6. "They will design plans of action that will be implemented by all member countries."

An expert from Brazil already working with Liberia will assist the new committee.

Liberia's agriculture minister said earlier that the caterpillars were not army worms as previously believed but the Achaea catocaloides species, which could turn out to be even more destructive. Experts warned that the insects could attack more crops than army worms, including coffee and cocoa.

Ivory Coast is the world's top cocoa producer and many of its plantations are in the west of the country in a region that borders Liberia.

AFP

Hungry caterpillars ravage crops, spread misery in West Africa

by Glenna Gordon

Martha Kermel holds out rail-thin arms covered with a latticework of scratches from her encounter with a plague of caterpillars that has devastated crops and spread fear through this corner of West Africa.

"They scratched my arms when they moved," said Kermel, a mother of four, telling how the small creatures poured down onto her from the tree branches overhead as she set out from her village to a rice farm cultivated by her community in Liberia.

That was more than two weeks ago. Now the millions of caterpillars which covered the road and nearby bushes have retreated into cocoons, or hatched already into moths ready to spawn a new generation of grubs here or further afield.

The insects can travel up to 100 km a day, and have already crossed the border to Guinea, an agriculturally rich country and the source of many of Liberia's food imports. That has set alarm bells ringing in neighbouring Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa grower and an important producer of coffee, rubber, palm oil and other cash crops.

The creatures were first thought to be army worms, a moth caterpillar, but they were identified this week as the young of another kind of moth, the Achaea catocaloides, which are also known to damage cocoa and other tree crops.

For the time being, the moths are headed north, and experts in Ivory Coast said they should avoid Ivory Coast's valuable cocoa belt, which produces about 40 percent of world supply. But they remain a risk to Ivory Coast's central borderlands, which produce around 100,000 tonnes of cocoa and 70,000 tonnes of robusta coffee a year.

For Kermel, the threat is more immediate. She and her family, subsistence farmers like most people in the area, live 16 km south of the border with Guinea and 45 minutes by foot from the nearest passable road. When the bugs attacked, Kermel had nowhere to go, and worried about feeding her children.

She said the "kotin", as locals call the pests, fouled the creek near her home with their faeces, turning the water black. Every day since then, she and her children have had to walk several miles to the main road to gather water at a borehole.

The Liberian governent has said the caterpillars are threatening the food security of 350,000 people, and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf declared a national state of emergency.

Jewel Howard Taylor, a senator who was married to Charles Taylor, a former president and warlord in Liberia's devastating 1989-2003 civil war who is now on trial for war crimes, donated 150 bags of rice and tarpaulins, clothes and blankets. That kind of help will be insignificant if the moths continue to spread and multiply.

The infestation may be linked to a long rainy season, cold weather at the start of the year, or climate change and deforestation forcing caterpillars to seek food elsewhere, scientists and Liberian ministry officials said.

"I think this is a seasonal threat. From our experience in Benin, the moth will disappear by early or mid-March," said Georg Goergen, an entomologist at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

While the caterpillars feed on trees, adults belong to a group known as fruit-sucking moths for their penchant for piercing ripening fruit and sucking out the juice, often causing the fruit to rot and drop prematurely.

Spray teams, each member with a plastic tank of insecticide strapped to their back, have started work. But Jobson Momo, an agricultural programme officer in the town of Carey, said his team did not have enough pesticide, protective gear or vehicles.

The entire first wave of Liberia's caterpillars has now turned into moths. Scientists at the Ministry of Agriculture fear they are are now reproducing and could cause secondary and tertiary waves of infestations that, if uncontained, may destabilise an already volatile region.

"This is a wake-up call, a call that gives neighbouring countries adequate time to mount an early warning system to detect and manage this problem," said Braima James, an IITA project manager.

Ivory Coast's National Centre for Agronomic Research has sent experts to Liberia to find out more about the caterpillars and see if any are headed towards their border.

Guinea, which borders both countries and is in a chaotic state after a December military coup, says a string of villages near the Liberian border is already infested.

"The equipment we have means we can only spray up to a height of 6 metres, whereas some trees are 30 metres high. We absolutely must have air support," said Sikoun Wague, spokesman for Guinea's Agriculture Ministry. "These insects suck the sap from trees and leave tonnes of waste in channels and water courses, which are then unusable for two weeks," he said.

Across the border in Liberia, Kermel has, luckily, already harvested her rice crop. But while she and her relatives waited for the caterpillars to disperse, they should have been planting for the next season. The delay could cause a weak yield next harvest.

John Kulah was less lucky. He had cropped his upland rice but lost all his swamp rice, which ripens later, to the bugs. "They eat and eat and eat, so greedy," he said angrily. "We have to farm to live," said Kulah, who has now slashed out a new field in the bush, well away from the dahoma trees which attract the caterpillars. With nine children to feed, he hopes the next wave of caterpillars doesn't come.

Reuters

Cocoa pest plaguing Liberia my be easier-than-expected to control, FAO says

by Rudy Ruitenberg

Cocoa-eating caterpillars in Liberia may be easier to control than previously thought because they don’t burrow into the ground to cocoon, the United Nations said.

The moth larvae that devastated crops in the West African country spin their cocoons on the ground under fallen leaves, making it easier to curb them, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said on its Web site.

“Team members returning from the field reported villagers destroying cocoons by stamping on them or collecting and burning them,” the FAO said. The team “confirmed that the caterpillars had polluted water bodies and damaged crops such as coffee, cocoa, plantain, bananas and wild flora.”

The UN, which previously attributed the infestation to armyworm, yesterday identified the pest as a moth of the Achaea genus. Armyworms bore 4 to 5 centimeters (1.6-2 inches) into the ground to pupate, making them harder to control with pesticides.

Ivory Coast, which accounts for about 39 percent of global cocoa output, shares a border with Liberia.

“The caterpillars moved to other food sources after having eaten through the leaves of the Dahoma trees where they chiefly reside,” the FAO said. “Staple food crops such as maize, rice, sorghum and millet, which are scarce during this dry season, had generally not been affected.”

Liberian authorities don’t have measures in place for further outbreaks, the FAO said.

The moth whose larvae are causing the devastation is Achaea catocaloides rena. The caterpillars are mainly feeding on cocoa and banana trees, FAO representative Winfred Hammond said in an interview.

The UN recently week reported the caterpillars had started to cocoon, after about 100 villages in northern and central Liberia had been affected, as well as six communities in neighboring Guinea.

Bloomberg

Crop-eating pests laying more larvae in Liberia

by Jonathan Paye-Leah

Swarms of crop-eating pests are laying more larvae in the West African country, experts said Tuesday, warning that the caterpillars also have been identified as a species capable of more damage than previously believed.

While officials initially believed the caterpillars were army worms, Liberian Agriculture Minister Chris Toe said they now believe they are actually a pest capable of destroying even more crops, known as Achaea Catocaloides.

The pest invasion in Liberia, which is still recovering from years of civil war, has been blamed on last year's unusually long rainy season. The caterpillars have eaten vital crops including banana, plantain, coffee and cocoa and have forced villagers from their farms.

Agriculture Ministry official Joseph Subah said February 3 that 107 towns already have been hit by the pests and that they are now laying larvae, which will develop into more crop-eating caterpillars.

"We should expect a second wave or a third wave," Subah said.

The infestation is not expected to end until March, with the start of the rainy season in Liberia, said Alan Schroeder, an American entomologist with USAID.

The last time Liberia experienced such an invasion of pests was 30 years ago, but officials then were able to prevent its spread.

The West African nation was ravaged by civil wars for years until 2003. The drawn-out conflict that began in 1989 left about 200,000 people dead and displaced half the country's population of 3 million.

Associated Press

Liberian crop pest not army worms, species unknown

Pests that have ravaged crops in Liberia and sparked a national emergency, while threatening other countries in West Africa, are not army worms and remain unidentified, the ministry of agriculture said on Februray 2.

The creatures, first identified as destructive "army worm" moth caterpillars, are threatening the food security of some 350,000 Liberians, most of whom live on subsistence farming.

But as the presence of the pests has spread as rapidly as 60 km (38 miles) per day and they have already been reported in Guinea, agricultural experts fear they could disperse over a region that is home to top cocoa growers Ivory Coast and Ghana.

"They are not army worms, though we haven't determined what they are," Liberian Agriculture Minister Chris Toe said. He said samples were being dispatched to the United Kingdom for further testing to identify the pests, two weeks after they were first reported and tests in Ghana proved inconclusive.

"We need to be prepared for a secondary and tertiary wave of the pests," he added.

Reuters

Ivory Coast eyes Liberian worms, fears for cocoa

by Loucoumane Coulibaly

Army worms ravaging crops in Liberia are a risk for cocoa in neighbouring Ivory Coast, though no trees have been hit yet and experts are being dispatched to assess the threat, an agricultural researcher said on January 30.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned that a plague of caterpillars, known as army worms, had eaten crops and plants across Liberia and might spread throughout West Africa if left unchecked.

Farmers in the top grower's western cocoa belt say they have not yet seen any worms but experts will set up systems to fight them should they arrive, said Amoncho Adiko, head of research at the Ivorian National Centre for Agricultural Research (CNRA).

Ivory Coast has experienced a turbulent 2008/09 cocoa season so far, with administrative chaos, poor weather and disease contributing to a poor crop. Cocoa deliveries to ports are picking up but the total is still some 200,000 tonnes below volumes by the same time last year.

This, as well as fears of a shortfall in nearby number two grower, Ghana, has supported high world prices and helped boost the benchmark London contract to a 24-year high.

"For now, the (agricultural) ministry has not had any reports on the presence of the worms. (But) there is a risk as these caterpillars lay eggs and spread. They destroy everything in their path," Adiko said. "For the moment, we have been told they are heading to Guinea," he added. Guinea is north of Liberia and also shares Ivory Coast's western border. The FAO said six communities in Guinea had already been hit.

Liberia declared a state of emergency this week due to the plague of caterpillars, which grow to 5 cm (2 inches) and can swarm to destroy large swathes of vegetation.

"We are taking this problem seriously," Adiko said, adding that a CNRA team would survey farms all along the border. "We are going to work out extent of the risk and see what steps we need to take if the caterpillars arrive in the region. We want to know what species they are and what crops they attack," he said.

Farmers in the west said they were aware of the plague but had not seen any of the caterpillars.

"We've heard on the radio that the caterpillars are ravaging Liberia. For now, there aren't any here," said Adama Bamba, who farms cocoa and coffee near the western town of Bangolo.

"It worries us because it is not far. We're praying that the caterpillars don't come here because if they attack the coffee and the cocoa, we will lose lots," he added.

The Guardian

Liberian army worms could cause W.Africa plague, says FAO

by Alistair Thomson

A plague of hungry caterpillars known as army worms has eaten crops and plants in 100 Liberian villages and may spread across West Africa if left unchecked, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation said on January 29.

Liberia, ravaged by a 14-year civil war that ended in 2003, declared a national state of emergency this week due to the army worms, a type of moth caterpillar which grows to 5 cm (2 inches) long and can swarm to destroy large swathes of vegetation.

Millions of the caterpillars have stripped fields and polluted wells and streams with their excrement in Bong County, northeast of Liberia's capital Monrovia.

The Rome-based FAO said six communities across the border in neighbouring Guinea had already been hit by the army worms. Large tracts of West Africa were at risk, it said, particularly when the caterpillars, now burrowing underground to form cocoons, emerged as adult moths.

"Each moth can fly up to 1,000 km (625 miles) -- and lay 1,000 eggs ... Potentially, that's a recipe for disaster," entomologist Winfred Hammond, the FAO's permanent representative in Liberia, said in a statement.

Army worms are known to eat cocoa plants, and neighbouring Ivory Coast, the world's biggest grower, is already enduring a harvest blighted by disease and disorganisation, though no sightings of the worms have been reported there or in Ghana, the second-largest cocoa producer.

Hordes of army worms had caused panic in some affected villages, over-running homes and causing residents to flee, the FAO said. About 500,000 people had been affected, it said.

Liberia declared a local state of emergency in Bong County and appealed for international help to contain the army worms nearly two weeks ago, when 19 villages had been affected.

But with many more villages now known to be infested, including some in nearby Lower Lofa and Gbarpolu counties, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf declared a national state of emergency on Monday.

Government spray teams have started killing the caterpillers with insecticide, while food and water supplies are being distributed to the worst affected families.

The FAO said it was also considering using pheromone traps, using the scent of the female moth to lure males to their deaths.

Reuters