Smallholder Tree Crop Revitalization Support Project (STCRSP)

General

The project includes poor smallholders who cultivate less than two ha of land and rely on subsistence farming, as well as households headed by women, young people, war-wounded and disabled people among 15,000 households in the Lofa county. It aims to increase the quantity sold and the price received by poor farmers for cocoa and coffee by rehabilitating plantations, improving access to markets and by strengthening the Ministry of Agriculture and/or private extension services as well as Farmers-based Organisations. The rehabilitation of 315 km of farm-to-market roads and 15,000 ha of cocoa/coffee plantations, using a value chain model, aim at generating employment opportunities, mainly benefitting youth and women. The project aims at improving land tenure security, as the two partners for tree crop rehabilitation (Bio United and cooperatives) will be in charge of formalizing the farmers’ ownership over their plots. A memorandum of understanding with the project coordination unit (PCU) will be approved and signed by the farmer, the traditional authorities, and the district agricultural officers (DAOs) and county agricultural coordinator (CAC).