CAM staff recently visited a huge crop farm in Liberia where several hundred men and women were bent over the ground, each working their individual plots. Some were beating rice straw to separate the grains from the chaff. Others, who had finished their rice harvest, were chopping shallow holes in the ground and dropping in okra seeds.
Several years ago, CAM gave these farmers seeds through the Seed Project. They now save their own seeds for the next season’s planting and have become largely self-sufficient. We still provide them with hand tools and agricultural teaching.
Funds from the Seed Project are being used to start similar projects throughout Liberia. In a country where generations of poverty and years of war have put people in survival mode, seeds and agricultural tools give communities an incentive to work together, plan ahead, and provide for themselves.