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The mechanized upland rice production scheme in Foya | |
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In spite of LACs’ experience, James Philips, the Secretary of Agriculture was very anxious to increase Liberia’s rice production. He therefore contracted an Israeli land development company to develop mechanized upland rice production in the Foya area. Due to the team’ reservations about the feasibility of this mechanized scheme,
which concerns it had expressed in writing to the Secretary of Agriculture, the
FAO team was not involved in any technical details of this scheme. However
during a visit to Foya in February 1974, van Santen visited the mechanized
upland farm operations and took some photos. The mechanized operations in Foya
already covered a large area of several hundreds of hectares by early 1974. Land
clearing was very roughly done, top-soil was carelessly removed in many
locations and serious sheet erosion could already be observed at many spots in
during the first planted rice crop, which crop was in general very poorly
established. |
The rural economy
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Charles van Santen December 2005 |
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