Smallholder Tree Crop Revitalization Support Project

This project is designed to reach the most vulnerable farming households in Liberia's Lofa County. Its target population includes poor smallholders who cultivate less than 2 ha of land and rely on subsistence farming, as well as households headed by women, young people, and war-wounded and disabled people.

Two-thirds of those over the age of 14 in the project area are self-employed in agriculture. Household income in the area comes from tree crop and food crop sales, farm labour, small-scale commerce and remittances. In Lofa, 80 per cent of households grow only cocoa.

Against this backdrop, STCRSP works to reduce post-conflict poverty and food insecurity, and improve rural livelihoods and living conditions. Its specific objectives are to:

• Rehabilitate cocoa plantations as a means of increasing the quantity of produce sold and prices received by poor farmers
• Improve access to markets through rehabilitation of roads
• Reinforce the extension services of the Ministry of Agriculture and private providers
• Strengthen the capacities of farmers' organizations.

Working with the Ministry of Agriculture and other implementing partners – including a private-sector entity that is active in cocoa and coffee marketing and export – the project is designed to foster the production of high-quality output, including organic production. In turn, it aims to link smallholders with markets and raise their incomes.