JNB-F’s Tubmanburg Agro-project in full swing; charity’s boss plans to meet Pres. Boakai for support
Editor’s Note: The boss for President Joseph Nyuma Boakai Foundation Hon. Jackson K. George Jr. strongly believes Liberia’s future lies in the agricultural industry and ever since he first visited the Tubmanburg farm-site given to the foundation by the president for farming, he has never taken a rest but continues to push on. Please read:
By James Kokulo Fasuekoi|Editor-Publisher
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY AUTHOR
Tubmanburg, Bomi-Moved by what he saw Wednesday, April 2, JNB Foundation’s boss Hon. Jackson K. George Jr., said he would speak to President Joseph Nyuma Boakai Sr., to arrange getting a tractor to the charity’s farm soon in order to accelerate work there, now that the farming season has advanced.
In the meantime, the foundation’s current group of workers are engaging in sustainable-type farming while more young and older folks are being recruited to join the team in Tubmanburg as Hon. Jackson George rallies around to get investors involved including securing tractors to carry on the work.
He intends to open an agronomy-training facility here-the first of its kind-alongside the farm in Tubmanburg which covers 127-acres farmland. He revealed this after he first visited the site Feb. 20, on an assessment with a team from his foundation. Pres. Joseph N. Boakai purchased this property for his charity’s agricultural projects years ago.
The designated site is presently undergoing clearing which will be followed by the planting of various types of local crops, or vegetables and peanuts, plantains, and cassava, widely consumed here are at the top of the list.
Amid a 90 degrees scorching heat from the sun, Wednesday, workers used diggers-making holes in the earth, while women and kids scrambled to toss cassava sticks in dug-holes.
“When we came here the first time, it [farm] was small…today, it’s a whole big farm,” Hon. George, standing in a clearing, (a burnt farm), and surrounded by a group of local villagers, indicated amid broad smiles. He praised workers at the farm for their hard work. George was accompanied by a team of staffers and his wife, Mrs. Ellena K George, a resident of Minnesota, USA.
“We’ve to develop this farm. I see that we need equipment. We want this farm to be like a [Argo] training place where farmers can come and get their [Agricultural] training, and after that, we will give them seeds and monitor them.” He toured the large clearing, taking a better view of the new farm with some degree of satisfaction.
The JNB Foundation’s boss is Christian, and like his parents, believes in hard work and thinks Liberia’s future lies in the agricultural industry.
The Bible, meanwhile, encourages Christians to be hardworking, while denouncing any form of laziness which, accordingly, comes with heartbreaking consequences, as one Christian writer puts it.
One of God’s first assignments given mankind for example, can be found in Genesis 2:15: “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Also, Proverbs 14:23 says: All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.”
Currently, two of President Boakai’s designated farmworkers, Mr. Joseph Kundukpaka and Sister Sarta are stationed at the Tubmanburg Ranch; the two work closely with the foundation’s boss, to run the farm.
After Hon. George’s Feb. 20th visit, Joe and Sarta recruited close to 15 or more local farmers and villagers to join them till the soil as was evident, Wednesday.
Workers recruitment for the farm continues, and for Joe Kundukpaka, who heads the exercise, the more he gets work tools and food to feed volunteers, the faster work will go on, he told Hon. Jackson George.
Some ethnic Kpelles and Kissi People from President Boakai’s own ethnic background who’d long resided in this gold-diamond belt, said they feel happy to join the president’s efforts to rebuild Liberia: Kissi elder, Saah Johnson, seen in the above photograph, with his twelve-year old grandson, Saah, is one such person.
Banner photograph: Little Saah stands next to the farm kitchen under construction Wednesday, hanging around while his grandfather, Elder Saah works in the field with other volunteers.
