Update on the Visions in Action-USDA-IRDO Swamp Rice Development Program

Visions in Action has completed one year of implementation of its two year Swamp Rice Development Program in Lofa County, Liberia. The program is assisting 2000 rice farmers in 40 communities in five districts: Salayea, Zorzor, Voinjama, Kolahun, and Foya. With the goal of increasing farmers' rice production and yield per acre, the program provides improved New Rice for Africa (NERICA) rice seed, basic hand tools and intermediate technology to make farming less labor-intensive and move farmers past subsistence levels of production. The program is supported by the United States Department of Agriculture's Food for Progress program, and is implemented with technical assistance from the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDO), a local NGO.

This year, the Swamp Rice Development Program has:  Distributed cutlasses, hoes, shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, diggers, axes, rainboots, twine, and rice bags to 2000 farmers

Trained farmers in improved lowland rice production techniques

Expanded the acreage of land dedicated to lowland rice farming

Rehabilitated pre-war canals and bunds

Introduced and multiplied NERICA rice

Introduced intermediate technology, including weeders, threshers, mills, tillers, and a tractor

Examples of "intermediate technology" between labor-intensive traditional agricultural methods and expensive ultra-modern systems: manual rice threshers, driven by leg or arm movements, which separates the rice grains from the stalks; small rice mills, powered by small gas or diesel engine, to remove the husks from the rice after they have been threshed; rotary weeders, pushed by a person through the rows in rice fields to remove the weeds through a rotary cutter powered by the moving wheels; come-along winches, to manually apply leverage to remove tree stumps, as this is the greatest impediment to expanding rice fields; stump grinder, 11 HP, small gas engine, to grind the stumps of trees cut down to expand swamp margins; rototiller, 6 HP, small gas engine, to cut up soil and prepare it for planting; chainsaw, to cross-cut trees that have been felled manually in the swamp, as it is very difficult to remove these trees as they are very heavy when not cut; tractor, 53 HP, with backhoe, front end loader, tire chains, and detachable tiller, to build bunds and canals, dig fish ponds, and clear brush and debris from land

And NERICA rice is also part of the new technology being introduced. Cross-pollinating an African rice variety with an Asian rice variety results in new kinds of rice, in which some (not all) of the new varieties capture the best qualities of both types of rice - the high yield and quick maturity of the Asian rice with the strong disease resistance of the African rice. Only through extensive experimentation and field-based testing is it possible to determine which varieties have the best qualities of both types of rice, which are then identified, multiplied, and given to farmers to try in their fields. For more about NERICA rice, see the NERICA article under "News."

LOFA COMMUNITIES: The 40 Lofa communities receiving assistance in lowland rice production include: