Livelihood Improvement for Farming Enterprises

Project Dates: February 2008 – June 2010

Country: Liberia

Alliance: ACDI/VOCA, US Department of Agriculture (USDA), World Cocoa Foundation, Liberian Department of Agriculture, local governments, and financial institutions

Implementers: ACDI/VOCA, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture/Sustainable Tree Crops Program

Overview

The Livelihood Improvement for Farming Enterprises (LIFE) project is working with 5,600 smallholder cocoa farmers to address constraints in the cocoa value chain and to mitigate livelihood risk to smallholder farmers through diversification of revenue sources. The project will be active in Nimba, Bong and Lofa Counties.

Program Objectives:

• Farmer training: Training of smallholder farmers in cocoa production, crop diversification, pest management, post-harvest handling, marketing and farming as a business.
• Nursery, seedling production and tree rehabilitation: Supporting production and distribution of cocoa seedlings through the establishment of nurseries and rehabilitation of cocoa trees through pest management and possibly side grafting when appropriate material is identified.
• Farmer Organization and increased market access: Strengthening of farmer cooperatives or organizations to function as profitable commercial enterprises; introducing farmer organization concepts to individual farmers with the objective of forming new farmer groups; and improving farmers’ access to markets and prices received.
• Access to credit: Promoting improved access to credit for cocoa farmers and their organizations by training farmers in requirements and responsibilities; and providing assistance to lending institutions on sustainable agricultural credit.

Progress to Date:

• 1,674 farmers trained through farmer field schools. Farmers were trained by 18 facilitators in Bong and Lofa Counties on topics such as crop production, diversification, post-harvest handling and marketing. Additionally 2,027 farmers were trained in crop diversification resulting in the planting of 367,356 assorted vegetable seedlings and 1,500 plantain and banana suckers.
• 10 farmer associations formed. The associations, formed in Bong, Lofa and Nimba Counties, represent a total of 3,050 farmers. The purpose of the associations is to improve provision of services to farmers, as well as to market cocoa and other produce. In 2008, two of these associations made bulk sales of 7.4 metric tons.
• 1,310 farmers trained in Farming as a Business concepts. As a result of the training, at least 563 farmers are now keeping farm records. Over the course of the program, at least 5,600 farmers will receive the full Farming as a Business training to improve their farm management, business sense and prospects for becoming viable commercial enterprises.
• 600 farmers trained on access to credit. Farmers learned about credit access including understanding loan application requirements and repayment responsibilities. Technical assistance was provided to three financial institutions to improve their understanding of farmer creditworthiness and develop credit schemes for farmers and farmer associations.

Success story: For Cocoa Marketing "Knowledge is Better than Silver and Gold"