TITLE:
Sustainable Rice Cultivation Development Pathways in Liberia: Cost Reduction and Efficiency Enhancement
AUTHORS:
Adoley Mildred D. Twalla, Jinling Gao
KEYWORDS:
Rice Cultivation, Cost Reduction, Liberia
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.14 No.2,
March
10,
2026
ABSTRACT: Rice is the primary staple food in Liberia and is considered the basis of national food security, rural livelihoods, and macroeconomic stability. Domestic production of rice is still insufficient despite the agroecological conditions being favorable, and as a result, the country has to depend heavily on imports, thus exposing itself to global price volatility. This paper thus explores different integrated production cost reduction and technical efficiency enhancement approaches for Liberia’s rice sector through a mixed, methods design. Primary data was obtained through field surveys of 176 rice farmers in Bong, Grand Cape Mount, and Montserrado counties. Data Envelopment Analysis was implemented in the quantitative part to determine technical efficiency, while chi, square tests as well as frequentist and Bayesian ANOVA were used to check the relationships between farming methods, technology adoption, costs, and yield outcomes. The statistical analysis was also supplemented by the qualitative findings from the interviews with key informants. The study revealed that the sample of farmers had only reached 55% of the average technical efficiency level, indicating that there is a huge potential for productivity improvement by using the current resources. The use of modern production methods gave a yield that was about 31% higher than traditional systems. Labor costs were found to be the largest share of the production costs, while extension service was the factor most strongly associated with technology adoption. In light of the above, the research suggests a Cost-Efficiency Optimization Framework as a conceptual analytical tool that merges components of cost structures, efficiency, technology adoption, and institutional support. This research provides a set of policy, related factors for the development of rice self, sufficiency through the alignment of mechanization, irrigation, extension, and agricultural finance in Liberia.