Since the end of Civil War in 2003, Liberia has become an example of advancement and peaceful democratic transformation for other countries emerging from conflict. Although the country is blessed with a climate favorable to agriculture, extensive biodiversity, and vast natural resources, years of war together with low economic investments have ruined Liberia’s assets of productivity. Liberia has progressively shown a productive political, economic, and social progress. However, despite the positive progress shown, Liberia remains a highly food insecure country, with a major state of hunger ranking. Due to the continued risk of food insecurity, there are possible chances that economic and political instability, could gradually develop in the forthcoming years. This study aims at discussing food insecurity and the role of population growth on food insecurity, factors that interrupt the flow of food from the source to the people in Liberia, and forms of technology that can be used to reduce hunger and improve food security.
Food Insecurity and the Role of Population Growth on Food Insecurity
To begin with, Food insecurity refers to the state of lacking a dependable access to an adequate quantity of affordable and nutritious food. It can also be described as the disruption of food consumption or eating patterns due to lack of money and other resources. Food insecurity is usually a significant matter in the economic stability domain. Like most countries experiencing food insecurity, food insecurity has remained as a major challenge affecting Liberia’s social and political stability. Rapid population growth in Liberia has played highly contributed to food insecurity in Liberia. As the global population is increasing rapidly and expected to reach 9.5 billion, the population of Africa is expected to increase by double during the same period(Hope, 2016). Particularly, Liberia has one of the highest population growth rates in the world. A survey taken in December 2015 indicated that Liberia harbored around 39,000 refugees from Ivory Coast whom had fled their country due to election crisis (Hope, 2016). The Liberian Civil War, led to an increase in female-headed households and the agricultural workforce that was left comprised of workers older than 50 years old, most of which were women. This damaged the agricultural sector of the country, leading to lower food production levels. Since then, the government has try coming up with programs aimed at reviving farmer production. However, this has proved futile due to the huge displacement of farmers. The rapid population growth comprises of a generation that lacks skills needed in the agricultural sector (Hope, 2016). Therefore, since Liberia is an agricultural dependent country, the deficit in a workforce has led to low food production that can sustain the rapidly growing population. As a result, the level of food insecurity in Liberia ranges from moderate to severe, characterized by seasonal food deficits for two to four months every year and distinctiveness on poor dietary.
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Factors That Interrupt Flow of Food from the Source to People in Liberia
Liberia, on the Atlantic coast of Africa, is classified as a country with the least growth, low-income and high food-deficit. Poverty and food insecurity are high across Liberia. The government of Liberia has made efforts, such as the World Food Program to improve on food insecurity. However, various factors interrupt the flow of food from the source to citizens. These include of corruption, low economy, poor infrastructure, and Ebola crisis. The major factor that interrupts food flow in Liberia is corruption and government conflict. Corruption is a major epidemic in the government of Liberia. Reports from Transparency International state low salaries in the public sector contribute to the high rates of corruption. Thus, corruption in Liberia undermines economy in the country since funds allocated for food in the country end up being used in corrupt means. Further, the scarce food resources are taken away from the community and sold back at higher prices for personal gains. Another factor includes of high poverty rates caused by war. The war of Liberia led to the shutdown of public resources, and destruction of resources and infrastructure. The government of Liberia is unable to sustain the food needs of the population since there is low economy and most people cannot afford the food. Further, the poor structure of roads in the country is also a huge contributor that limits the flow of food from the government to the citizens, especially those situated in rural areas since there are no reliable means of transport. Ebola crisis in Liberia has also led to the interruption of food flow from the government to the citizens. The outbreak of Ebola in 2014 interrupted the economic progress of 2010 to 2013, causing the government to divert the scarce resources allocated for agriculture use to control the spread of the virus (Chavy, 2018).
Forms of Technology to Reduce Hunger and Improve Food Security
Since almost 50% of Liberia’s population generates their income through agriculture, the government should come up with technological innovations to help in improving food production, harvesting, food storage, and handling in order to reduce hunger and improve food security. One of the technological innovations includes of use of chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers help in improving farm yields. Use of chemical fertilizers in rice, horticultural, and oil palm farming would help in improving food supply in Liberia, thus reduce food deficit in Liberia. It would also help in increasing income for farmers hence improving on economic standards. The second type of technological innovation is use of satellite imagery (Reding, 2016). Satellite Imagery helps in monitoring changes in the environment, which are likely to affect crops and fisheries. This technology would be of much significance to Liberia since it would help farmers to adjust their farming patterns according to the environmental changes. Subsequently, Secchi disks technology, would help pond fish farmers in Liberia, in monitoring the nutrient content and quality of water (Reding, 2016). In addition, Liberia could also use the Global positioning process, a technology that uses receivers and trackers. It is used in automatic recording of data and application of varying rates of inputs to smaller areas that require fertilizer reinforcement within large fields. This technology could help in saving the amount fertilizers for large-scale farmers. Temperature and moisture sensors are yet another technological innovation that could be used to reduce food insecurity in Liberia. These sensors help in determining the amount of temperature and moisture content in the soil and thus help in regulating temperature and moisture content in the soil to the one appropriate for higher yields. This technology would help both small and large-scale farmers in Liberia in increasing their agricultural yields and as a result help improve on food security reducing hunger.
In conclusion, it is evident that chronic food insecurity in Liberia can be attributed to many factors. The main factor that has contributed to food insecurity in Liberia is war, which affected the social and economic state of Liberia. The other factor is Liberia’s rapid population growth rate since most of Liberia’s population lacks agricultural skills, while Liberia is an agricultural dependent country. Further, it is evident that government conflicts and corruption have also played a huge role in food insecurity in Liberia. However, although Liberia has been faced by huge food deficit and reduction in food quality, the country has made a notable progress in food security as compared to the war period. The citizens have resulted to engaging in rice/cassava farming and fishing along the coast. Further, there are open employment opportunities in large palm oil plantations. Therefore, technological innovations could also help in improving the current state of food insecurity and hunger in Liberia.
References
Chavy, A. (2018, July 21). Under the Radar: Chronic food insecurity could hurt Liberia’s economic growth and stability. Retrieved from https://globalriskinsights.com/2018/07/food-insecurity-liberia-economic-growth-stability-agriculture/
Hope, E. T. (2016). Climate Change and Food Security: Africa and the Caribbean . Milton Park: Taylor & Francis.
Reding, M. (2016, November 18). Technology to Improve Agricultural Productivity. Borgen Magazine Retrieved from https://www.borgenmagazine.com/agricultural-productivity/
