Liberia will be taking a lesson from Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire in developing a sustainable cocoa sector.
Though the economy has been dominated by rubber plantations
and large farms, Cocoa has been identified as national priority for export
diversification and highlighted in the Liberia National Export Strategy
(2014-2018).
However, there are challenges in the country’s cocoa sector,
including underdeveloped value-chain, including old and diseased trees, lack of
inputs, poor fermentation techniques, limited financing, high labour cost, lack
of drying, packaging and drying techniques.
The African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) and
USAID initiated a dialogue on “Regional Collaboration on
Overcoming Binding Constraints on the Growth of Liberia's Cocoa Value Chain”.
According to Edward Brown, ACET Senior Director Research, Policy and
Programs, “there is the need to look at the
regional value chain and how they interface between the various countries
policies and regulations.”
“Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire produce almost two-third of world
cocoa; Liberia’s cocoa development would further augment that percentage. So
there is the need to look at how we situate the Liberian cocoa production,
policy and industry to ensure that they have the maximum benefit from the
experiences of the other countries,” he noted.
Liberia’s
sustainable cocoa
There are over 40,000 farmers growing cocoa in Liberia, and
individual farmers cultivate an average three acres of cocoa.
Cocoa is planted along with secondary food crops, allowing
for diversification of farm enterprise.
The Liberia Agricultural Sector Investment Plan (LASIP) seeks
to diversify the country’s economy through robust agricultural value chains and
a modern industrial policy to increase production, productivity and income from
2018-2022.
The Government of Liberia and IFAD also have a $23million
financing to boost cocoa production, targeting the Nimba County. This
intervention is expected to help increase annual cocoa production to over
10,000metric tons.
Sustainable cocoa sector in Liberia is focused on three
areas: Investments and cocoa marketing; Sustainable production and quality
control; and Environment and climate change.
The
LEPDA Project
The Liberia Economic Policy Dialogue Activity (LEPDA) project
is a USAID-funded four-year technical assistance, capacity development, and
grants project that aims to foster self-reliance by spurring private sector-led
economic expansion in Liberia.
The project is implemented by Nathan Associate in
collaboration with the government of Liberia and civil society organizations
(CSOs).
The Project convened key players involved in
Liberia’s cocoa sector to participate in an inception meeting to help in
shaping and executing the research project towards enhancing the cocoa industry
in Liberia.
They included government and policymakers, farmer
organizations, the private sector, development partners, and the media.
Marcus Williamson, Chief
of Party, USAID LEPDA, emphasized that
civil society can be policy partners to shape Liberia’s policy direction.
The project therefore seeks to develop the capacity of civil
society for the agriculture-based transformation through the value chains.
The CSOs capacity development processes will include a cocoa
value-chain study and political economy analysis, which will lead to policy
dialogue and the development of a Liberia Cocoa Policy.
The goal is to have an upgraded cocoa value chain as well as
capable and credible framework.
The process will include a comparative analysis of cocoa
producing economies like Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, which already have an
existing partnership.
by Kofi Adu Domfeh
