By Mohammad Abul Azad, Rose Mungai and Masako Hiraga/UNDP
For decades, Liberia’s agricultural sector has been recognized as central to the country’s economy, rural livelihoods, and food security. Yet policymakers and development partners have often had to make critical decisions with limited and outdated data. That is now beginning to change.
Liberia’s new Agriculture Census 2022/23 and the 2024 Annual Agriculture Survey provide the most comprehensive picture of country’s agricultural sector in more than fifty years. Together, they reveal a sector with enormous untapped agricultural and agribusiness potential, but one still constrained by low productivity, limited commercialization, and weak access to modern inputs and markets.
The findings point to both an urgent challenge and a major opportunity: how can Liberia transform a predominantly subsistence-based agricultural system into a more productive, market-oriented, and resilient agribusiness sector?
Agriculture remains the backbone of Liberia’s economy
Agriculture continues to play a major role in Liberia’s economy and society. The 2024 survey estimates that more than 68% of Liberia’s population is engaged in agriculture, while the sector contributes roughly 28.5% of GDP, making it Liberia’s second-largest economic sector after Services.
The census identified approximately 338,630 agricultural households and an agricultural population exceeding one million people. Nearly all agricultural households are engaged in crop cultivation, underscoring the sector’s central role in employ.
