Agriculture Sector

Agriculture is the primary economic sector in the country as it provides livelihood for more than 68% of Liberia’s population with an overall contribution of 30% of Liberia’s 2022 real gross domestic product (GDP). It provides sustenance for many households engaging in cassava and rice that form the primary staple of food crops, in addition to rubber, oil palm, cocoa, or sugarcane production. More households engage in cassava production than any other food crop. However, overall agricultural productivity is low as it is mainly based on traditional, small-scale farming systems and techniques that rather rely on labor force than machinery.  As a result, Liberia imports more than 80% of its rice, making the country vulnerable to global food price volatility.

The poor integration of the sector resides in the lack of basic infrastructure such as developed machinery, farming equipment/tools, farm-to-market roads, fertilizers and pesticides and food storage capacity. The main cash crops and foreign exchange earners are rubber, oil palm, rice, and timber.

Rubber is one of the dominant revenue generators, as it represents 7.6% of the country’s total export receipts and 54.9% of agriculture exports in 2023[1]. Various estimates put the number of people employed by commercial rubber farms at 20,000 and the number of smallholder households involved in growing rubber trees at 35,000. However, no baseline study provides definite statistics. The Firestone Natural Rubber concession, covering almost 200 square miles, is the largest contiguous natural rubber operation in the world and the biggest private sector employer in Liberia.

Palm oil, a traditional domestically consumed product, also plays a major role in the country’s economy with a total contribution of 6% of total export receipts[2]. There has been some interest from both smallholders and large investors in expanding cash crop production. However, access to market is a concern to most of them. Stakeholders in the palm oil sector include smallholder farmer cooperatives, individual farmers, large multinational-owned corporations and concessionaires, as well as individuals playing various intermediary roles and providing support services.

Concessionaires still struggle with land rights awarding process in Liberia. Despite the promulgation of the Land Rights Act in 2018 that clarified land tenure, only a comprehensive implementation of the law could resolve uncertainty around land ownership.  Furthermore, the lack of capital and professional expertise to increase farms productivity presents a barrier to investment in the agriculture sector, which deprives the country of considerable opportunities to increase its outcome from the sector.

Similarly, farmers’ ability to access valuable markets and improved inputs to increase production is limited by the poor quality of the country’s network of roads. During the rainy season that lasts from May to September, movement from rural areas is significantly restrained due to heavy rainfall, especially in lowland swamp areas. As a result, smallholders tend to sell produce in local markets where prices are relatively lower. Despite the government’s current initiative to rehabilitate main roadways and some key feeder roads in productive areas, more work is demanded to improve roads network and bridge infrastructure in remote rural areas.[3]

Liberia has a favorable climate and fertile soil for cocoa production and there has been substantial investment in the rehabilitation of cooperative and smallholder farms.  The country’s international partners, such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) continue to invest in cocoa smallholder producers to improve livelihoods and raise incomes by modernizing cocoa farming, increasing production, and developing market access.  Small scale cocoa production will likely increase as farmers continue to reclaim and rehabilitate their farms. As with the agricultural sector in general, smallholder cocoa farmers and local cooperatives suffer from inadequate farm-to-market roads, lack of familiarity with measurement and quality standards, lack of storage facilities, and limited access to up-to-date price and market information. According to FAO, cocoa beans exports duplicated between 2018 and 2021 with 19 tons for US$ 40.8 million against 10 tons for US$ 18 million in 2018.[

According to the World Bank, the Liberian economy grew by 4.0 percent in 2024, with the agricultural sector's output, mainly driven by increased rubber and rice production, increasing by 3.4%, a notable improvement from 1.4% in 2023, accounting for 1.3 percentage points of the country’s overall economic growth. Rubber production rose by nearly 18% after a 2% decline in 2023, and rice output increased by 8.5%, reflecting better growing conditions, an improved road network providing greater market access, and policy efforts to enhance local production, supported by favorable weather and rising global prices. 

The Ministry of Agriculture has been making progress under the ISLA initiative, funded by IFAD through its  STAR-P framework, which aims to promote livelihood resilience, restore soil fertility, and advance sustainable land management through climate-smart agriculture. It complements the broader STAR-P objectives of strengthening value chains, empowering smallholder farmers, and expanding market opportunities.

The Ministry of Agriculture is working closely with IFAD, the World Bank, and other development partners to implement the National Agriculture Development Plan (NADP) and achieve Liberia’s long-term vision of a modern, resilient, and self-sufficient agriculture sector that drives economic growth and improves the lives of farmers nationwide.