The Ministry of Agriculture announces with profoundest regret and deep sorrow the death in her 78th year of Hon. Florence Alletta Chenoweth – two-times Minister of Agriculture and Africa’s first female Agriculture Minister in 1977.
She succumbed to the cold hands of death on Monday, June 26, 2023 in Monrovia following a protracted illness, her family informs the MOA.
Former President William Richard Tolbert named Hon. Chenoweth as Minister of Agriculture in 1977 when she replaced Minister Louis A. Russ when she made history as Africa’s first female Minister of Agriculture. Minister Chenoweth succeeded by Hon. Cyril A. Bright in 1979.
Following her first stint in the Government of Liberia, she worked for the World Bank in the Republic of Zambia and the United States of America.
Later she joined the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1997, later became its first Country Representative in South Africa and FAO’s Liaison at the UN Headquarters in New York from 2001 to 2007.
After rhe ascendency of Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as President of Liberia, Minister Chenoweth was called to national duty and served for the second time as Minister of Agriculture from 2008 to 2015.
While as Minister, she is credited for the Ministry’s current slogan: GROW WHAT YOU EAT; EAT WHAT YOU GROW and embarked on vigorous capacity building programs where dozens of MOA’s staff were sent for their respective graduate and post studies.
The MOA misses her immense contributions to the transformation of Liberia’s food security and agricultural expansion programs targeting smallholder farmers.
Funeral arrangements will be announced later in consultation with the deceased family.
