Agriculture in Liberia

[1][2][3][4] Liberia has a climate favourable to farming, vast forests, and an abundance of water, yet low yields mean that over half of foodstuffs are imported, with net agricultural trade at -$73.12 million in 2010.

[8] Timber is also a major export at $100 million annually, although much of this is the product of unsustainable habitat destruction, with Asian corporations criticised for their role.

[9] Deys, Bassa, Kru, and the West Atlantic Gola and Kissi, are likely to be the first inhabitants of the region of present-day Liberia.

[11] However, in the 1870s the agricultural sector witnessed a prolonged crisis due to falling prices of cocoa and sugar as well as coffee being introduced to Brazil.

In the first half of the 20th century, the nation received loans from the United States, who created it, developing its economy and agriculture.

In World War II, due to south east Asia's rubber's control by Japan, the United States invested heavily in Liberia, especially in agricultural infrastructure.

[12] In the 1990s the government was criticised for selling rights for deforestation to foreign companies, who exploited the bio-diverse hardwood rainforest.

[12] Only a quarter of the original evergreen rainforest is left and almost all the remainder of the land is a mosaic of crops, shrubs and planted trees, in contrast to the Great Plains of its founding country.

[13] Chronic malnutrition was (and still is) widespread, caused by a lack of infrastructure, poverty due to unemployment and low use of fertilisers and pesticides (below 1%).

Nevertheless, recent investment from foreign companies has resulted in cash crop production rising since 2006 with the percentage of households producing them doubling from 28% in 2006 to 46% in 2009 and 55% in 2012.

Half of Liberia's total landmass is forest (4.9 million hectares) and 47% is arable land, although most of this is upland pasture.

Three quarters of the country's land is made up of latosol, a reddish, mineral-rich but infertile soil found in tropical rainforest.

A tropical climate gives high temperatures all-year round (roughly 27 °C), relative humidity of 65-80%, and heavy rainfall, especially in coastal regions with 3,500-4,600 mm.

[19] In the wake of the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, rice production has shifted away from the traditional 'breadbasket' Lofa, Nimba and Bong Counties to the south east following irrigation investment which tripled yields.

[22] The rubber industry was born in the country when Hilary R. W. Johnson, the president, permitted a British firm to extract wild latex in 1890.

Then, in 1926, Mr. Harvey S. Firestone (a tyre company owner) obtained a 99-year lease for 4% of the country's territory in exchange for a $5 million loan.

[23] Firestone gave Charles Taylor, the warlord who caused the deaths of 300,000 Liberians, millions of dollars to secure the future of the firm's plantations, but production was still stopped for 6 years from 1990.

Cassava can be ground into farina flour by removing the skin and grinding it in hammer mills or by hand in a traditional mortar.

The fruit itself is high in energy as fat, and can make cooking oil, candles, soap, palm wine and dried flakes.