Africa-Press – Liberia. The International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) are jointly working to build vibrant and food secure rural communities in Liberia resilient against climate change.
The initiative seeks to support cooperatives to improve incomes and to overcome their food security challenges by ensuring all the necessary support.
It is under the Tree Crop Extension Projects (TCEP I&II) and the Building Climate Resilience Project (BCRP) for the cocoa, rice, vegetables, poultry, and aquaculture value chains in Bong, Nimba and Lofa counties.
Under the programs, IFAD and the MoA are rehabilitating farm to market roads, ensuring the provision of improved seeds and technologies, improving production practices for the farmers to improve their yield and to be able to reach the market with their produce.
This intervention is bringing a lot of smiles for community members as it is boosting economic opportunities.
The Kwakehseh Multi Purpose Cooperative based in Saclepea Mah District, Nimba County is one of the beneficiary cooperatives that the project is reportedly impacting.
Established in 2008, members of the cooperatives initially struggled to grow and harvest cocoa. They lacked the knowledge of improved cocoa cultivation and usually harvested a minimum quantity of cocoa pods from trees that had lasted for more than 50 years. The cooperative also lacked the tools and equipment to improve productivity and access better markets.
But in 2020, the cooperative partnered with IFAD under its tree crop extension program to rehabilitate old cocoa plantations of members, providing improved clones and teaching the members about improved production practices through a farmer field school approach.
This partnership, according to many of the beneficiaries recently interviewed, is said to have caused them to improve productivity.
The chairman of the Cooperative, Amos Nyaplue, said: “Little did we know the economic value of cocoa. We did return to our plantations after the war producing and earning very little to support our families. But with the coming of IFAD, today our economic conditions are improving.”
Nyaplue said that cooperative membership has greatly increased with 89 individuals becoming shareholders within the cooperative as the result of the partnership.
“This cooperative is being linked with cocoa exporters to market our products. The project is working with the members of the cooperative to rehabilitate their farms,” he explained.
Besides cocoa production, IFAD is also supporting the cooperative members in rice and vegetables. IFAD has constructed a modern warehouse equipped with various processing equipment and provided the cooperative with a tractor to transport their produce. The group has also gotten assistance to develop over 6 hectares of lowland planted with improved seed. Some members of the cooperative are also being supported in vegetables and poultry.
Under this BCRP, the move is intended to help the farmers to be able to diversify their agricultural production to overcome the effects of climate change.
According to IFAD, Kwakehseh Cooperative now mills and sells approximately seven metric tons of rice to the World Food Program generating US$5,550.00 annually.
The Chairman of the cooperative Mr. Nyaplue further acknowledged the contribution of the project, saying “They give a power tiller, rice mill, improved seed and other inputs. Before we lacked the basic tools to grow rice. Under the Building Climate Resilience Project we were empowered with the basic tools. The farm covered over six hectares but before yield was very little. Today we have a contract with WFP to provide rice and oil for the school feeding program,”
For More News And Analysis About Liberia Follow Africa-Press
