By James Kokulo Fasuekoi|JNB Foundation Communications Director
Chilly and rainy weather here, did very little Wednesday and Thursday, to deter a team of Agriculture Ministry staff from moving a huge consignment of fertilizer given to the ministry by Liberia’s President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s charity, the JNB Foundation.
Named by manufacturers as ROKO NANO DAP, and ROKO NANO UREA, the two new brands of fertilizers were brought into Liberia by the foundation a few weeks ago from India to be distributed among smallholder farmers in the country.
The Agriculture Ministry alone received 700 boxes (70 % of the content of the 20 ft. container of the fertilizer. With 24 bottles (just about a soda-size bottle) in each cartoon, the food department took along 16, 800 bottles of both brands of fertilizer that came in spray form which sets it apart from old traditional fertilizers in Liberia.
Workers began hauling the boxes using two jeeps, soon after a brief turn-over ceremony in Rehab, Paynesville, ended Wednesday. The moving however continued through till Thursday afternoon, under rainfall.
ROKO NANO DAP, and ROKO NANO UREA, by all accounts stand to be a game-changer in agricultural ventures here in Liberia, and bound to attract crops growers-both big and smallholder farmers, perhaps, fast replacing the old type pricy fertilizers that local farmers have known for years.
Rev. David Saa Fatorma Jr., the JNB Foundation Board Chairman, who helped negotiate the donations, described both brands as being a part of an evolving cutting-edge technology in the agricultural industry in Liberia. In using both products during planting crops, a farmer can apply just a single “bottle” to cover an entire acre of land and expect a great harvest; it’s definitely the kind of relief and news that Liberian farmers in general have been waiting for.
Board Chairman Rev. Fatorma, a published author who runs a church and his own school and foundation, urged Agriculture Ministry officials to properly use the news products for the benefit of farmers here.
He maintained that even though he trusts and holds high regards for the ministry’s officials, he wanted to warn against any attempts by anyone to “misuse” these products, stating, “This [product] is not for sale…this is free of charge.”
Made in India, ROKO manufacturers designed both products to help farmers accomplish two main goals; enhance crops planting, or maturity, as well as help keep bugs of all kinds away from the crops to let them yield more fruits.
JNB Foundation’s boss, Hon. Jackson K. George Jr., earlier, gave opening remarks and recounted his charity’s ongoing but enormous impacts it is making throughout Liberia via free donations to both private and public sectors here since its inception in 2018.
“We’ve done a lot in healthcare,” he told his guests, and emphasized how the entity had six ferryboats active across the country, a move he indicated, falls in line with President Boakai’s SIX-PILLARS AGENDA such as Agriculture, Health, Education, Sanitation, Environment, and Women & Youth Empowerment.
Hon. George named hospital and farm equipment such as incubators, dental & modern X-ray machines, motorbikes, “Kekeh,” tricycles and farm-tractors as being part of his foundation’s give-away packages to national healthcare and other institutions in Liberia.
Already, food and agricultural scientists working with ROKO manufacturers and Robustrade, the Dubai based Company through which the president’s charity secured the products are expected to arrive in Liberia shortly to help first train Agricultural Ministry workers who would in term teach local farmers regarding ROKO bast-used practices, according to Rev. Fatorma said.
For Deputy Agriculture Minister, Hon. Solomon Hedd-Williams, “ROKO” introduces a big shift from old traditional fertilizing fashion to a more sophisticated but simple style in food and crops processing. He was accompanied by Madam Zogbo Luther, assistant minister for technical services.
Minister Hedd-Williams thanked the president’s charity on behalf of his boss and assured that his agency would manage, train farmers, and closely monitor the distribution of the donations nationwide.
