Last week the BBC reported that Liberians were starting to eat pasta because the rising price of rice made it unaffordable. It also said Liberia imported 90% of its rice.
The 90% statistic is very bad news--I wasn't aware that the situation was that dire.
The pasta is also not great news--that has to be imported also (and will also be rising in price). There's not much encouragement for Liberian rice farmers if people shift from one import to another.
It would be useful to understand why domestic rice is so unobtainable. Is the country rice still of lousy quality (with the occasional stones in it), or is it too expensive to get it to town, or are there not enough farmers left? Some of those problems are solvable--"not enough farmers" is a tough one, though. Has any country successfully sent people from the city back to the farms? (No, I don't consider the vile Khmer Rouge to have been successful.)
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