Who We Are
Liberian Agricultural Project (LAP) is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that is exclusively organized and based in Minnesota as part of an integrated approach to bring awareness and interest in food and fruit crops production and manufacturing for rural small-sale farmers in Liberia.
The LAP organization is a nonprofit organization that is committed to supporting Liberia’s rural small-scale farmers for food and fruit crops farming and related agri-business to alleviate rural unemployment such as:
To encourage and improve vegetable production in rural communities.
To give access to small scale rural farmers larger marketing opportunities.
LAP will also collaborate with the Liberian Ministry of Agriculture to advance food and fruit crops production from subsistence farming to make based farming.
What We Do
As part of LAP works to create market-based farming for rural small-scale farmers, its work is strongly grounded around communitarian values, which emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. And for this, the organization has acquired 215 acres of land in the Mbelequah Town rural area for its agricultural practices among the small-scale farmers in Bong County. Also with LAP access to this land, the organization will focus on food/fruit crops specialty production to sell them in these following seven food hub markets in Monrovia:
| Paynesville Redlight Market Paynesville ELWA Market Nancy Doe Market Rally Town Market Via-Town Market Dula Market Waterside Market |
And besides these local food hub alternative markets, LAP will also sell its produce to big institutions/businesses like hotels and grocery stores. With this large farming land purchased, LAP is going to start farming in January, 2019 for these various vegetables and fruit crops to have a diverse income in agribusiness:
One of the reasons for initially starting with these food/fruit crops is because these crops are domestically in high demand throughout the country all year round. In addition, food stuff accounts for 22% of the Agricultural GDP, which is higher than all livestock 14b/GDP. However, food stuff harvest are still on subsistence level throughout the rural areas, according to the Central Bank of Liberia (2009).
As a charitable organization organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes to promote Liberia’s small-scale farmers from subsistence level farming to commercialized agriculture, if granted Minnesota Sales Tax exemption, the Liberian Agricultural Project Organization will be able to purchase farming equipment to help rural farmers increase their farming productivities, to have access to cool and dry storage facilities that can elongate the shelf life of their produce, and cargo vans to transport product to alternative markets in those large urban center and international buyers.
Thank you for viewing our website.
John Paye
Executive Director & CEO
