Mr Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD),
Members of the Executive Board,
Members of the Governing Council,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen.

Thank you Mr. Nwanze and members of the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for the kind invitation extended to Her Excellency President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to join you and to serve as keynote speaker at the opening of the 35th Session of the Governing Council of this august body.  Permit me to convey the highest regards from President Sirleaf who, I assure you, would have wished to participate in this important meeting personally, but unfortunately could not because of  previous commitments at home. For the honour you have bestowed not only her, but our country, Liberia, I am here as her proxy.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, Liberia welcomes the convening theme of the 35th session of the IFAD, “Sustainable Agriculture: Feeding the World and Protecting the Planet.” As you may know so well food security is a critical pillar of our administration’s development agenda, and it is a personal passion of mine.
Currently, my government is promoting the policy “Ending Hunger in Liberia.”  This is a critical development agenda in our works and it will continue to remain important throughout the second term of our administration.   

As Liberia looks forward to strengthening its engagement with the IFAD, our primary goal is to ensure not only that we broaden and deepen our ties in the agriculture sector, but to ensure that our partnership is making a real difference in our fight against hunger in Liberia and on our common planet.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, Liberia is deeply troubled by the threat to agriculture activities and fluctuation in climatic conditions, coupled with the rising number of hungry people in our world today. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), nearly 1 billion people are feared hungry.  In just thirteen years, an additional 1 billion people will be added to the world’s population. 

While many regions of the world have made impressive strides in reducing poverty in the last few decades, the global financial crisis and the rise in food prices have combined to push millions more families back into poverty.

Looking ahead, the problem of food insecurity will only deepen. Because by the year 2050, to feed nine billion people, food production will have to increase by 70%. This means that the developing countries will need to increase the arable land area for farming by 12% to achieve this goal.

We know that our world can feed all of its people now and in the future, and end hunger if we do the right things now.

Therefore,

• We must identify and accept those fundamental changes that must be made in mainstreaming our thinking on the problems.  This will include making a clear distinction between our goal for ending hunger and malnutrition, and placing the food security of our individual countries and that of our world on a sustainable path.
• We must create conducive conditions for smallholder farmers to contribute to raising food availability by 70% by 2050 - which is what will be required to feed a growing more urbanized population.
• We must take bold, appropriate and timely actions that will include measures to enhance production. And we must ensure that smallholders are both protected from the threats of climate change, and promoted as custodians of natural resources so that they share the responsibility for protecting the planet.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, smallholder farmers have learned to adapt to environmental change and variations. However the increased pace of changes and climate fluctuations imply that smallholder farmers often do not have the capacity to withstand these shocks. In Africa alone, by the year 2020, climate change will expose 75 to 250 million more people to increased water stress.

Because we exist in the rainforest, Liberia too is particularly vulnerable to climate change. Communities in Liberia have limited adaptive capacity due to widespread poverty. About 95 square kilometers of coastal land could potentially be inundated with a one-meter rise in the sea level.

Liberia is meeting these challenges by strengthening institutions and community organizations after 14 years of civil war to respond with equal might to this risk, which includes:

• Establishment of legislations and guidelines,
• Establishment of forests for protection of watersheds and wetlands, and
•  Implementation of programs for soil and water conservation. 

Additionally, we have prepared the Liberia Agriculture Sector Investment Program (LASIP) with three key priorities:

• Improving food and nutrition security,
• Enhancing agricultural productivity, and
• Promoting competitiveness and linkages to markets and strengthening human and institutional capacities.

In 2003, Liberia joined other governments in signing the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security as well as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), which encouraged member states to allocate 10% of the national budget to agriculture and to strive towards an agricultural growth rate of 6%.

I know that this world body has been working very hard as a voice for market-based approaches to managing the impact of rising food prices. But we know what the consequences are, because during the last major rise in food prices in 2007 and 2008, they were grave. For hundreds of millions of people, the staples of life, like rice, wheat, or corn, were suddenly out of reach. People who were already vulnerable fell into an even greater danger zone.

Now, thankfully, the situation we face today in Liberia regarding access to food is not yet as serious. But I come before you to reinforce what we are already doing, because we must act now effectively and cooperatively to roll back the adverse impact of rising food prices and protect smallholder farmers in rural communities. We cannot keep falling back on emergency food aid just to put the Band-Aid on to keep moving forward.

Liberia must and we will redouble our commitment to sustainable agriculture and food security to protect the most vulnerable in our society. Because of the lesson we learned from the effect of 14 years’ war on our agriculture sector, we are embracing smart policies as a response to food shortages and the rising prices especially in our staple food, rice.  While there have been negative consequences from the rise in the price of food for our people, we are convinced that it will have a positive effect on our policy of Ending Hunger in Liberia by motivating farmers to grow and sell more.

So the lesson from the past has strengthened us to embrace better policies and enlist the support of the world bodies to build a sustainable mechanized agriculture response to hunger in Liberia.

Now, we are well aware that some policies and approaches may be difficult to implement. We faced many outlived traditional challenges and approaches of farming - the slash and burn, shifting cultivation, women dominated farming, all of which contribute to an unsustainable agriculture environment.
We know that it will not be easy to part with the familiar. But we cannot let the complexity inhibit us. We cannot let the timeline of change deter us.

Distinguished delegates, it is fair to say about my own country and people that we are resilient and prepared to replace the old mode of rudimentary farming with the new mechanize farming of variety crops for sustainable growth and development. So, we need to do all we can together to find the best ways for this new paradigm shift to work more efficiently and deliver results for vulnerable communities.

Mr. President, my government is committed to ending hunger in Liberia and achieving the aims of strengthening the entire agricultural chain, from improving the quality of seeds, to connecting farmers to local markets, to connecting local markets to regional and global ones, to encouraging crop diversity and health education so people get the nutrition they need to thrive. But to capitalize on our potential, our farmers need better seeds, particularly suitable for wet weather environment, fertilizers, and technologies, as well as companies that can connect them with export markets.

In our engagement with your organization, the IFAD has proved to be a crucial ally. In 2009, after 20 years, IFAD re-engaged with Liberia. The IFAD project in Liberia has focus on “making markets work” for the rural poor, building and maintaining roads, and developing processing and storage facilities. This organization has also supported skills development for small farmers and building resilience and sufficiency at the community level. Under your much-cherished Agriculture Sector Rehabilitation Project, our farmers who participate in community-based organizations are reimbursed with replenishing seeds or livestock. This is creating a virtuous cycle of benefits in our rural communities, while at the same time ensuring strengthened community based organizations.

My government appreciates your support for revitalizing smallholder tree crops and strengthening farmers’ cooperatives that will play a crucial role in ensuring sustained incomes for farmers. 

There are many challenges ahead of us in the developing community. However, if we work as a cooperative community, and encourage smallholders to do the same, we can meet these challenges. We have to ensure that farmers are organized, that they understand the risks posed by both climate change and food price volatility and provide them the opportunity to grow more, sell more, eat better, and live longer.

I thank you.

Rome 22 February 2012