Liberia: Visiting agronomist successfully performs ROKO brand fertilizers test at CARI’s compound in Bong County
There’s nothing under the sun that is not covered by the Word of God: The Holy Bible even speaks of food nourishment, working to put food on our table-not only as a family but a nation! Quite interestingly, God also wants us Christians to consider food security-be it national or international as you will find out. A fine example of this is in Gen. 41:48-49, “Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it. Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure.” Thanks for revelation and Joseph’s obedience and wisdom! Now, read what Liberia’s current President Joe Boakai’s JNB Foundation charity is doing to increase local food production.
By James Kokulo Fasuekoi|Editor-Publisher
On Tuesday, September 9, a group of local farmers, field workers and officials of both Agriculture Ministry and the JNB Foundation watched keenly as one leading African soil expert, Bernard Agran, carried out his first demonstration on how farmers can use the new brand ROKO fertilizer.
The experiment lasted a few hours and was staged at the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI) campus near Gbarnga, Bong County. In attendance were local smallholder farmers-the main beneficiaries of a 20 ft. container of the new brands ROKO NANO DAP and ROKO NANO UREA.
Soil expert Bernard Agran led his audience about half a mile down the Monrovia-Gbarnga Highway from CARI’s compound, where he performed a practical ROKO fertilizer demonstration, at one of CARI’s agricultural test sites. More than 50 people including journalists were allowed to ask questions while Mr. Agran answered them all.
Agronomist Agran currently works for the company that manufactures the two kinds of fertilizers-ROKO NANO DAP & ROKO NANO UREA, brought into the country recently by the JNB Foundation, to be distributed free of charge among local smallholder farmers. Agran lives in the Republic of Guinea, where he trains farmers how to use these products and get better results.
He told this writer he has been working as a ROKO field technician for about half a decade since finishing his studies in soil science around 2019, and has traveled to countries like Ghana, Mali, and Sierra Leone, and now Liberia, among other nations, staging training for ROKO products.
The new brand ROKO products come in spray-bottle form and experts said they are designed to accomplish several goals; prevent bugs from attacking or feeding on crops as well as help farmers see an increased yield in crops from the fields, something expected to put more money into farmers’ pockets. The following is a pictorial from our visit to CARI.
Earlier, at CARI, Hon. Jackson K. George Jr., head of the JNB Foundation greeted participants, saying the new ROKO products are free and would be distributed among smallholder farmers.
Questioned about whether or not the products would be made available in Liberia by manufacturers for purchasing, Hon. George responded, “not for now.”
He however couldn’t rule out the possibility for the sale of ROKO products in Liberia in the near future.
Banner photograph: Princess displays a ROKO fertilizer flier at CARI’s main office near Gbarnga, Bong County, Tuesday.