By James Kokulo Fasuekoi|JNB Foundation Communications Director

Gbarnga, Bong County: 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 later led his audience about half a mile away from the CARI Compound, down along Monrovia-Gbarnga Highway, where he performed a practical 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. Text & Photographs by James Kokulo Fasuekoi-JNB Foundation Communications Dept.