By James Kokulo Fasuekoi
from Tubmanburg, Bomi Tubmanburg, Bomi-The JNB Foundation ranch consisting some 127 acres of farmland east of this once iron ore mining town will go far beyond the typical local or sustainable farming system here when it finally begins real business soon, says the charity’s executive director, Hon. Jackson K. George Jr.
In a conversation with the foundation’s media department director February 20, following a field assessment trip at the site Hon. George said he intends to transform the ranch into a modern farm or agro training facility where local farmers from across the nation will go and receive training in food production.
This idea, according to him, is part of his foundation’s goal in working towards achieving mass food production. By large, this move forms part of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai Administration’s self-reliance, or national food production agenda for Liberia.
More than anyone else, Hon. George appears to have a plan through which he thinks he can accomplish this task: he’s first going to turn away from the subsistence ways of farming and instead, employ the use of modern machinery such as tractors to till the soil, he told this writer.
The deployment of tractors and other equipment in the area to work, he said, is meant to also benefit farmers in the surrounding towns and villages once the foundation’s plans go through, in that he intends to move those machines around in order to help other farmers who might have need for them.
On Feb. 20, the foundation’s visiting team found the area quite fertile-so rich a soil that wild mushrooms can be seen rising up almost everywhere. There are also various kinds of plant species here, including African medicinal plants, and local villagers now use some of these herbs to cure common illnesses, they told us.
Along the northeast edges of the farmland sits a virgin forest, and in it, villagers have a sawmill where they do woodwork. This is in addition to a small beautiful waterfall in the middle of this ecosystem-friendly forest, good enough to host a summer cookout for at least 50 or more persons.
Long before Amb. Boakai Sr. became president of the Republic of Liberia, he purchased the property to be used for the foundation’s agricultural projects.
For now, there are about 21-member-standby casual workers-some residing in both Monrovia, and Tubmanburg as well as at the farm and ready to start cultivation on the land.
Years ago, when the spot turned into wild bushes, they gave it out to people willing to farm the land and feed their household and up to 27 different families, the workers say, volunteered, and in a single year, they produced 27 farms, subsistence type.
Note: James Kokulo Fasuekoi is Communications Director with the JNB Foundation.
