Over the next five years in Liberia, Feed the Future aims to help an estimated 332,000 vulnerable Liberian women, children and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—escape hunger and poverty. More than 96,000 children will be reached with services to improve their nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality. Significant numbers of additional rural populations will achieve improved income and nutritional status from strategic policy engagement and institutional investments.
To meet its objectives, Feed the Future Liberia is making core investments in three key areas:
1. Transforming Staples’ Value Chains
- Rice and Cassava seed/plant material production and dissemination
- Technical assistance through public and private extension
- Start-up finance for processing equipment, storage facilities, and transport
- Contracting support and market linkages
2. Developing Income and Diet Diversification Value Chains
- Vegetable horticulture
- Development of private sector extension services
- Start-up finance of lead traders/lead farmers for transport, storage and other equipment
- Capacity building of women and men lead traders/farmers in production, contracting support, and market linkages
- Goat husbandry
- Training for public and private animal health care workers
- Development of animal health care system
- Establishment of breeding programs
- Creation of business opportunities for privately-operated slaughterhouses
- Advancing the Enabling Environment
- Agriculture policy, advocacy, support and research
- Development and coordination of public and private extension interventions
- Private sector market structure and development
Target Regions. The Feed the Future Strategy is focusing on counties with the highest populations, the most farmers, the largest numbers living in poverty, and the greatest potential for agriculture development: Bong, Lofa, Nimba, Grand Bassa, Montserrado, and Margibi. These counties are located along Liberia’s main economic development corridors and collectively include around 75 percent of all Liberian households. Nutrition activities are focused in Bong, Lofa and Nimba counties.
Highlights
Food and Enterprise Development. The recently awarded Food and Enterprise Development project will increase agriculture productivity and profitability in key value chains, stimulate private enterprise growth and investment, and build local technical and managerial human resources to sustain and expand accomplishments. Special emphasis will focus on women food producers and micro-entrepreneurs as key actors in the sector.
Liberia Agriculture Upgrading, Nutrition, and Child Health Program. Feed the Future will also support Liberia Agriculture Upgrading, Nutrition, and Child Health (LAUNCH), the five-year Food for Peace Multi-Year Assistance Program working in Bong and Nimba counties. It will directly complement Food and Enterprise Development to improve smallholder production and post-harvest practices, integrate cash crops, and address the constraints along the value chains to accessing inputs, financial services and markets, while small-scale rehabilitation of farm-to-market roads and bridges will increase access to markets and services. LAUNCH activities will also include health and nutrition interventions linking vulnerable households to community services, building capacity of health facility staff and community health volunteers, and conducting a supplementary food distribution program for pregnant or lactating mother and children under the age of two.
Excellence in Higher Education for Liberian Development. The five-year Excellence in Higher Education for Liberian Development program focuses on developing Liberian women and men for professional careers in agriculture and engineering in two institutions of higher education located in two of the Feed the Future focus counties
Rural Infrastructure in Support of Enterprise Program. Currently under development, Rural Infrastructure in Support of Enterprise will be a four-year program that aims to support the infrastructure needs of selected value chains within focus countries, along with education programs directed at building capacity in core areas of agriculture, engineering, health sciences, and forestry.