LIBERIA: CHAP farmers make progress during COVID-19 crisis; see similarities between health precautions and SRI prinicples!

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Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 global health crisis is also affecting food security across Liberia and throughout Africa, the Community of Hope Agriculture Project (CHAP) initiated ways of keeping her out-grower scheme farmers under the “Rice Investment for Empowerment” (RISE) growing food during this crisis period in support of Government Liberia C-19 Food Security Plan through the Ministry of Agriculture, calling on everyone to grow something during the lockdown.

 

According to Robert Bimba, CHAP continues promoting SRI principles for growing rice under the current health crisis as was done during the Ebola crisis in 2014-2015 through the regional SRI-WAAPP program. An interesting development is that many farmers see the SRI principles as similar to the COVID-19 health precautions. These include wider spacing (social distancing), single seedlings (avoiding crowds), AWD (frequent hand-washing), and increased soil health (keeping healthy), to name a few. [For the rest of the list, see Robert Bimba’s article.]