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Vegetable seeds being transported from the Roberts
International Airport where they arrived Feb 17 Press Statement Brewerville, Montserrado County –
8 March 2013: Church Aid Inc (CAI), the relief and development department of
the New Water in the Desert Apostolic Pentecostal Church, announced the arrival
of a consignment of 100,000 packets of vegetable seeds into Liberia with a
retailed value of half a Million United States Dollars. The seeds were
purchased and shipped by Seeds Program International based in Charlotte, North
Carolina with the assistance of collaborating partners and cleared with the
assistance duty-free privilege from the Office of the President of Liberia.
The seeds are in 14 varieties to
include okra, pepper, collard, cucumber, onion, eggplant, melon, lettuce, and
mustard, amongst others and will be used to support individual and community
gardens to help rebuild personal economies and boost food security.
With agriculture as the base to
potentially resolve unemployment in the country, Church Aid is calling on all
Liberians “to sow seeds to fight hunger”. With the FAO of the United Nations
predicting shortfalls in agriculture production due to the 25% reduction in our
production capacity, it behooves all Liberians to turn to the soil and avert a
future epoch of hunger in the country. The civil war devastated the country and
uprooted the farming population. Intermittent attempts to salvage the
agriculture sector are beginning to show some signs of improvement but much is
still desired. The following sub-programs will be pursued in utilizing the
seeds:
Seed
Programs International has supplied approximately 1 million packets of
vegetable seeds for humanitarian gardening programs in Liberia since 1998. More than half a million packets of these
seeds have been distributed by Church Aid Inc.
All
the vegetable seed shipped to Liberia is selected for its suitability for the
tropical growing conditions encountered there.
All selections must meet the appropriate day-length requirements and,
when possible, have appropriate heat and disease tolerance for these growing
conditions. Selections are made by the
Ph.D. horticulturist on staff in consultation with several members of the SPI
Board of Directors who have extensive experience in the international vegetable
seed industry. Our partners often choose
the vegetables to be included in the seed assortments based on local
requirements and cultural preferences.
In the fourteen years SPI has shipped seed to Liberia we have never
received a report of seed that failed to grow due to adaptation problems.
Church
Aid and Seed Programs International seek to ship only seed that meets
commercial vegetable industry standards for germination and purity. Germination is tested at least annually by
independent certified seed testing laboratories, and only seed with germination
above 80% (usually much higher) is shipped to our partners. Each major shipment of seed has undergone
germination testing by the Ministry of Agriculture upon arrival in Liberia, and
only one seed lot was found to fall below their standards in the last 14
years. Seed packets are sealed in
plastic bags to prevent moisture intrusion, and instructions on seed storage
and handling are included with each shipment.
Church Aid partners do not accept
or distribute any seed containing genetically modified material. Currently there is only one vegetable
available in the United States with genetically modified material (a summer squash
with genes for disease resistance). Such
seeds are produced only in limited quantities, require advance orders, and are
too expensive for donation for humanitarian programs.
Signed: Rev. Dr.
Kortu K. Brown
Note: on picture of vegetable seeds to be distributed by Church Aid Inc
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