Food Preservation in Rural Liberia

Thank you to all who have supported this initiative to improve food preservation and increase the potential income of our farmers at the Gbarnga Lutheran Training Center (GLTC) in rural Liberia, West Africa. A small team of missionaries just returned from a four week visit to the school campus. Progress is being seen across our agriculture program including large harvests of sweet potatoes, bitter ball, okra, and cassava. Given the productivity of our gardens and the small income from selling crops in the local wholesale market, it is becoming even more evident that being able to refrigerate crops like the sweet potatoes and bitter ball would enable us to delay selling so we are not selling when supply of the same crops is high, thus the prices are low. Selling off-cycle with the other farmers would give us competitive advantage in the market.

One of the challenges of designing this cold storage building is the limited resources available in Liberia. During this recent trip, research was done to find one of the more important resources – insulation. To maintain a cold interior, we will be battling the intense sunshine, heat, and humidity of Liberia’s environment. A visit to a local missionary resulted in discovering a cost-effective resource for insulating the walls and ceiling of the cold storage rooms. Discussions have continued with a solar battery manufacturer with hopes for either gaining a significant discount for our project or perhaps some donated solar equipment.

Thank you and continue praying that we will find all the resources and financial support needed to begin construction of this important food preservation facility to help break the cycle of food insecurity and poverty in this rural area.