Liberia: Women Farmers in Bong County Decry Being Forced to Lease Land for Farming

Nov 15, 2024 | Mae Azango
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Twenty-Eight-year-old Mallah Dolo, a single mother of two, was reading education at the Cuttington University in Bong County, but was forced to become a University dropout and turned to a farmer, when her benefactor, former Bong County District five lawmaker, Edward Karfiah, did not win the last election. 

Cultivating the soil for three years in Agartala, Bong County, where she lives since quitting school, Dolo grows crops and vegetable, such as cassava, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, corns, bitter balls or (Garden Eggs) Okra, Pepper, Potato greens, cassava leaves and processing her own farina, but she still faces numerous challenges. 

Speaking in an exclusive interview at a recent three-day National Climate Justice Summit, organized by ActionAid Liberia, and its International and National partners, held at the ESJ Ministerial Complex in Congo Town Liberia, Dolo disclosed that the most challenging part in farming is leasing customary land from Town chiefs within their community to farm, instead of having access to their own land according to the Land Rights Law.