Livelihood Improvement for Farming Enterprises (LIFE) II

ACDI/VOCA addresses the challenges faced by Liberia’s smallholder cocoa farmers through the USDA-funded Livelihood Improvement for Farming Enterprises (LIFE) II program in Liberia. The three-year program is active in Bong, Nimba, Lofa, Grand Gedah, River Gee and Gbarpolu counties.

With the proceeds from the monetization of 8,800 MT of rice and 2,950 MT of hard red winter wheat, the program:

• Trains cocoa farmers in productivity, business skills and crop diversification
• Establishes nurseries and renews trees
• Strengthens cocoa marketing by farmer organizations
• Improves access to capital

Training Sessions Increase Productivity

ACDI/VOCA and its partner, the International Institute, conducts farmer field schools (FFS), Farming as a Business trainings and crop diversification trainings to improve cocoa productivity and quality and enhance the livelihoods of smallholder cocoa farmers. FFS topics include tree and shade management, disease control, quality management and social messages on gender equality and prevention of child labor.

Farmers in the program learn to:

• Evaluate the productivity of their farms and maximize revenues through sound crop selection and intercropping
• Make improved marketing decisions
• Establish operational structures in support of joint marketing activities.

Farmers Benefit from Improved Planting Material

The LIFE II program introduces tested and proven improved cocoa hybrids to support nursery development and tree renewal. Farmers benefit from increased, sustainable commercial access to improved planting material.

LIFE II works with both established nursery managers and new FFS graduates to develop and manage the nurseries. It also supports the development of nurseries into independent businesses that will supply interested farmers with improved planting material.

Associations Empower Farmers

LIFE II has formed new farmer organizations and continues to work with the farmer associations established under LIFE I in order to ensure their sustainability. The program works to improve farmer association access to price and other market information and ensure they understand how to benefit from this information.

To improve cocoa quality and ensure that farmers receive corresponding premiums on their prices, grading must be done by farmer associations. LIFE II provides material and equipment such as scales and humidity meters to associations with established management plans for these resources. The program works with qualifying associations to construct warehouses, solar dryers and fermentation boxes and to develop security and maintenance plans. Overall, ACDI/VOCA works with farmers, farmer organizations, traders, exporters, quality control/graders and international buyers to establish strong, sustainable market linkages.

Farmers Access Improved Financing

LIFE II establishes and improves access to financial resources by shifting the source and management of credit from seasonal commodity buyers to a rural financial service provider that farmers have a direct stake in and that is managed by the farmers, a private sector institution or both jointly. The program establishes rural savings and credit programs that provide access to short-term loans, building upon a structure promoted and successfully implemented by several other NGOs in Liberia, referred to as a village savings and loan club. LIFE II will continue its coordination with the financial and private sectors to increase their understanding of the business opportunities for farmers and to facilitate the adaptation of products to the smallholder cocoa farming context.

LIFE II has expanded its piloted activities under LIFE I to create an association-level warehouse receipts program (WRP) that helps associations and farmers bulk their cocoa and other produce and provide immediate access to credit at harvest time. WRP records will become important documentation to improve access to private sector capital.