Liberia's Agriculture Commodity Regulatory Authority (LACRA), working with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), has begun distributing roughly 700,000 seedlings of Coffee Liberica — a species native to the West African country — to farmers across five counties: Bong, Bomi, Lofa, Montserrado and Nimba. It marks the first concrete step in a broader push to revive the country's coffee industry.
The effort falls under a 20-year, $60 million partnership between the Liberian government and Nigerian agribusiness JR Farms Group Inc. The program aims to support more than 200,000 farmers and develop over 250,000 hectares of coffee plantations, while creating more than 300,000 direct and indirect jobs through new nurseries, washing stations and quality-control systems.
Coffee Liberica, a species far less known globally than Arabica or Robusta, is being positioned as the flagship crop of this economic revival effort.
Source: Daily Coffee News