LAC was one of the international general trading companies in Liberia, exporting Liberian agricultural commodities, such as sheet rubber, coffee, cocoa and palm kernels and importing equipment for the plantations and mining companies in the country. Due to the distance from the LAC headquarters in Monrovia, the entire Salomba operation was done by air. Rice seeds, fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides were all sown from small agricultural planes. This reduced staff time in the field to a minimum and avoided the need for expensive farm-roads. Only harvesting was done on the ground by using special combine harvesters with low pressure crawler tracts.

Rice yields in the first year were 3 000kg/ha, but decreasing rapidly till under 1 000 kg per ha in the third year, while the breakeven point had been calculated at
3 000 kg per ha. LAC therefore decided in 1971 to stop its operation. The main reasons for the reduction in yields were the rice blast disease and rapidly reducing soil fertility. The Salomba rice scheme clearly showed that mechanized upland rice production was not
feasible in Liberia.

Slideshow Salomba rice scheme
 

The rural economy
Lofa County 1970's
A pictorial story

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