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Posted by Chester Morton / Saturday 31 December 2016 / No comments
The causes of low agricultural output in Liberia
The land tenure system
Reluctance to commercially develop
the land
Farmers who may be willing to commercially
develop the land on a large scale are not ready to do so. This is because, they do not
know if their investment is safe. A business man could irrigate the large
track of land that he acquires by lease, for example, but does not know if he
would allowed to extend his lease at the end of its expiration. The owners
might want to take their land back, seeing it has been well resourced.
Lack of funds
Another major factor contributing
to low agricultural production in Liberia is the absence of adequate financial
resources to invest in agriculture. The
production of agricultural products is capital intensive. Most farmers in Liberia
are not able to lay hands on the needed capital to undertake the farm business.
The role of commercial banks
The banks in Liberia are not ready
to extend credit facility to the farmers. This is sometimes due to the fact
that they do not have the requisite guarantee or collateral. The banks think
that extending credit to the farmers is a risky venture so they are reluctant
to do so. This is also a problem affecting productivity in Liberia.
Dependence on rain
The farmers in Liberia still
largely depend on rain fed agriculture. However, the rains are not
reliable. Sometimes they come too late or too early. Other times they come too
heavily or too little. Most of the farmers cannot afford to established
irrigation facilities to farm round the year. This is contributing to low
agricultural production in Liberia.
Inadequate pest control
In Liberia, farmers are
confronted with pest attacks. This destroys their entire crop production for
the year. This is a disincentive e to the farmer. There are also diseases that
affect livestock. Farmers can lose an entire stock of animals because of
disease. When such things happen, they bring the level of agricultural
production down.
Post harvest loses
Another source of low
agricultural productivity is post harvest loses. There are inadequate storage
facilities to store the harvest after production. So after production, some of
the harvest gets rotten at the farm-gates especially during bumper harvest.
SAMPLE QUESTIONS
1. Account for the factors that affect
agricultural productivity in Liberia.
2. Highlight six factors that
contribute to low agricultural productivity in Liberia.
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ECONOMICS
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