Prior to Liberia's civil crisis, Lofa County was the unquestionable leader in food production, feeding itself and harvesting enough for the rest of the country. The dogged determination of the people to toil the soil  with added assistance from such Liberian institutions as the Lofa County Agriculture Development Project (LCADP) and the Liberia Produce Marketing Corporation (LPMC), the county soared to the top as the nation's primary producer of food. Farmers in Lofa produced  fruits, vegetables, sweet potatoes and other cash crops including oil palm fruit (from which palm oil is extracted), coffee, cocoa, and sugar.

Then the civil crisis stepped in and the county experienced some of the worst cases of the conflict which paralyzed everything, from infrastructure to human capacity to agricultural activities among others.

The once booming agriculture base, known as the 'Breadbasket of Liberia' dropped far behind in food production, with Nimba County taking the lead. But, Lofa County's dream of regaining its “breadbasket” status is steadily becoming a reality by some estimate. “For now, we are really picking up, in terms of producing food especially rice”. That's according to Mr. John B. Dovee, Lofa County Agriculture Coordinator.

A Joint UN Project comprising the Ministry of Agriculture, Swiss Development Corporation, Vision in Action, WFP and the Smallholder Tree Crop Rehabilitation Support Project are now contributing to efforts aimed at producing more food.

Mr. Dovee said the projects are greatly imparting the success of farming and making a mark on farmers, emphasizing that over twenty farmers of Lofa have for the first time witnessed 'double harvest'. 

Mr. Dovee puts the number of privately owned local farms to over eleven thousand (11,000) this year.

“This year alone, we have bought at least five thousand bags of paddy rice, out of which we have produced over three thousand bags of mailed rice”. The Lofa County Agriculture Coordinator told MIA Renaissance.

He called on government for more budgetary support to agriculture, because he said conditions of farm-to-market and main roads are great challenges.