Liberia: PADEV to Supply Farmers With 6000 Plantain Suckers and Over 100k Hot Pepper Seedlings In the Southeast

Monrovia – Over 20 potential farmers in communities near the Grebo-Krahn National Park (GKNP) are expected to receive a supply of planting materials including 6000 plantain suckers and over 100k seedlings of hot pepper in the coming months.

The supply of the planting materials aligns with plans to empower local farmers to grow plantain and pepper in commercial quantity to boost the local economy of communities near protected areas (PAs).

This effort is also meant to improve food security and contribute to the supply of locally produced commodities on the Liberian market. Plantain is the third widely consumed local staple in Liberia next to rice and cassava.

On the other hand, pepper is the most widely consumed spice in Liberia. However, both crops are only cultivated at subsistence level in Grand Gedeh and River Gee Counties where Partners In Development (PADEV) is currently implementing components of a UNDP supported project known as Community Based Forestry and Protected Area Management (CBFM) project.

The project is funded by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia and it aims to strengthen management of community forests (CFs) and protected areas through improved governance of Community Forest Management Bodies (CFMBs), capacity building of forest regulatory framework and promotion of sustainable livelihood incentives for forest dependent communities.

To complement the farmers’ efforts, PADEV has procured and prepositioned a consignment of farming tools to be distributed to selected farmers prior to the commencement of site preparation to grow their crops.

Additionally, PADEV has posted field extension staff in Konobo, Glio and Twarbo Districts in Grand Gedeh; and in Sarbo, Putipo and Gbeabo Districts in River Gee Counties to provide direct extension support to the farmers.

 The extension services will broadly focus on strengthening farmers’ capacity to adopt the regenerative climate-smart/low emission agriculture approach for the agriculture value chain activity and to improve their understanding of the magnitude of postharvest loss during crop production.

Looking ahead, PADEV’s long term goal is to spread the concept of farming-as-a-business (FaaB) by creating smallholders throughout the local forest areas and empowering them to grow crops in critical volume, thereby reducing farmers reliance on protected forests for their

Livelihood.

In 2024, an estimated 450 forest fringe community people reached during previous project raised over three million Liberia Dollars (L$3m) from income driven enterprises and microfinance programs such as Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLAs), handicraft items, food crops including hot pepper, local cowpea, groundnuts and corn.

As PADEV re-engages with the communities, its mean focus is to work with individual farmers to improve their productive capacity and link them with sectorial partners including the county and district agriculture coordinators, county authority and the regional leadership of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) in the Southeast who will continue to monitor and provide guidance to the farmers when the project ends.

“This approach highlights the significance of our partnership and collaboration with local stakeholders and underpins our plans to devolve ownership and management responsibility of donor funded projects to the local people,” Nobeh Jackson, Team Leader of PADEV remarked at the close of a recent project inception meeting in Fish Town, River Gee County.

In addition to the regenerative climate-smart/low emission project, PADEV will continue to support VSLAs, forest governance activities, sustainable beekeeping, strategic communication, a cane rat pilot in Gbalawein, Sinoe County; and will explore the opportunity to support an enterprise for sustainable trade in non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in Weasayn, River Cess County.