Monrovia – Liberia, with its humid climate, has some of the most favorable fertile soil for agriculture, the primary livelihood for more than 60 percent of the country’s estimated 4.5 million population.
While Rice and cassava are the most popular food crops grown, oil palm and cocoa come next to rubber as the most cultivated cash crops.
Despite increased investment in the rehabilitation of cooperative and smallholder farms in Cocoa and oil palm in the country, production has been relatively low due to lack of technical knowledge and best management practices.
However, the narrative is changing gradually for many smallholder farmers, thanks to the timely intervention by Solidaridad, an international civil society organization founded in 1969 in the Netherlands.
The organization, among other things seeks to transform production practices to promote fair and profitable livelihoods and business opportunities, decent working conditions and a fair living wage.
Although Solidaridad has spent a considerable short time (three years) operating in Liberia, the organization is making significant impact on the lives of cocoa and oil palm farmers in three of Liberia’s 15 counties including Bong, Lofa and Nimba.
The Cocoa Projects
The cocoa farmers are beneficiaries of the Cocoa Rehabilitation and Intensification Program (CORIP) and Liberia Cocoa Sector Improvement Program (LICSIP).
These projects are funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the European Union Delegation to Liberia respectively.
Through the CORIP and LICSIP, 2,480 farmers are benefiting from the 2019 distribution of seedlings, coaching and other needed farming inputs.
According to officials, thirteen new nurseries have been established in the three project counties including Bong: Kowai, Totota and Bong Minies; Lofa: Konia, Togaywah, Selega, and Shellu and Nimba: Karnwee, Bonadin, Gleaye Zorpea, Douwean, Gbloulay and Dougortuon.
Through the LISCIP, 80 facilitators are being trained and sent to various communities to train other farmers on model farms.
These models farms are being used to train farmers on Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) which are then replicated to their individual farms.
In addition, 27 service provision centers under CORIP have been established to provide farm level production services, as well as eighty farmers’ field schools (FFS) have been set up in the three counties.
Speaking to a team of journalists in Bong and Nimba Counties recently, the farmers said Solidaridad’s intervention is boosting production.
Victoria George, a cocoa farmer in Bleyepea, Nimba County stated the training and technical support serve as eye opener for them.
“I never knew that Cocoa was so important. But when Solidaridad came, they showed us the techniques to make us get more yield and now we are applying them and our crops are coming up well. First we were blind but now our eyes are open,” she said.
Joseph Darwon, another farmer, said in addition to the best management practices that are being thought by Solidaridad, farmers are also encouraged to cultivate food crops on the newly established farms to serve as source of sustenance while the young cocoa mature.
“First, we will only make the farm for our cocoa, but we have been encouraged to plant food crops like corn, rice and cassava for. This what I am doing and is taking care of my family as we wait for the cocoa,” he explained.
Interventions In Palm Oil
As a mean of ensuring quality planting materials, Solidaridad is working through four small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on the development of 40,000 seedling nurseries in Karnplay and Coper Village (Nimba County), Foya (Lofa) and Bellemue in Panta District (Bong).
Through a co-financing mechanism, the SMEs provided the land and labor while Solidaridad provided the pre-germinated seed nuts and the irrigation system.
According to Solidaridad’s Oil Palm Program Manager, J. Cyrus Saygbe, the SMEs, on a commercial basis will make available these seedlings to smallholder farmers.
With that, he said the SMEs are expected to use the proceeds from the investment to reinvest in the nurseries during the second year with Solidaridad providing just technical support.
Sylvester Kpai, Sr. is the CEO of Kpailama Agro Business Enterprises and one of the leads of the four nurseries due to his vast experience in the seedlings business.
Speaking to reporters at the nursery in Laokeh, Nimba County, Mr. Kpai explained there are 10,000 seedling on nursery, and because of the interest in the hybrid seedling, farmers are putting in for more.
In addition to the branch in Nimba, Kpai said his entity also has projects in Bong, Grand Bassa and Maryland Counties and is working with 300 farmers, providing education and technical services to them.
With the irrigation system installed by Solidaridad, he said production has tripled at the nurseries.
“The irrigation system has tripled production. Without this, we would have needed 10 to 15 persons for sprinkler system. But only two persons are needed to do this,” he noted.
In Bellemue, Panta District, Solidaridad’s Bong County Oil Palm Consultant, Dedee Cooper explained that under the Best Management Practice, farmers are taught to apply several approaches including field accessibility; the ground cover management or replacing unwanted trees; pruning which involves removing old palm fronts or parasitic crops from cocoa trees; and the bulk front stacking, among others.
Lack of these technical skills by local farmers have been a major setback in their production. But Diana Sackie, at the demonstration site in Bellemue told reporters with the training, she was ready to implement what she has learned at her farm.
“First, we did not know these skills. So, we were just working more and getting less, but now, things are going to change,” she said.
Solidaridad At 50th Celebration
Meanwhile, the organization has pledged its commitment to supporting the agriculture sector to improve the livelihood of the people and spur economic growth.
At a colorful event marking the 50th anniversary celebration of the organization, Solidaridad’s Oil Palm Manager, J. Cyrus Saygbe said despite the organization’s three years operation in Liberia, it has made several interventions in the cocoa and palm oil sectors.
He said Solidaridad has been working with relevant government’s agencies including the Ministry of Agriculture and Liberia Commodity Regulatory Authority (LACRA) to improve the sectors.
Key interventions include support to Cocoa production through the Center for Cocoa Development (CCD) and the Sustainable West African Palm Oil Project (SWAPP) launched in June 2019.
The SWAPP, Saygbe stated is being implemented in 83 communities across five counties including Bomi, Bong, Grand Bassa, Lofa and Nimba.
Core aspects of the program includes the introduction the “Best Management Practice (BMP)” to all of its smallholder farmers as a new technology that will increase yield from four tons per hectare per year to about 17 – 19 tons per hectare on a yearly basis.
In addition, he noted the SWAPP program is providing long term jobs to thirteen young community college graduates recruited by Solidaridad.
Five SMEs, added have been identified to benefit from a one-ton per hour mill through a co-financing agreement, beginning with two of the SMEs in Grand Bassa and Lofa Counties.
Also at the event, a panel discussion on the work of Solidaridad featuring five experts and officials including the Director General of the National Bureau of Concession, Gregory Coleman and Coordinator of the National Oil Palm Platform of Liberia, Galah Toto was held.
The officials lauded the organization for is intervention in Liberia and urged it to continue, taking into consideration best environmental practices.
Meanwhile, the celebration continues with series of activities including donations and recreation in Bong and Nimba Counties, respectively.
About the Solidaridad Network
The Solidaridad Network is an international civil society organization founded in 1969. The organization’s main objective is facilitating the development of socially responsible, ecologically sound and profitable supply chains. It operates through nine regional expertise centers in over 50 countries.
In West West Africa, it operates in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.