Entry: Bill Guyton
Earlier this week, there was an interesting article written by Alistair Thomson of Reuters regarding cocoa farming in Liberia. The article explains the production and marketing challenges facing cocoa farmers in a country emerging from conflict. Mac Pay-Bayee, country manager for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture's Sustainable Tree Crop Program (STCP), spoke of his belief that, with proper education, farmers will be able to “make a fairly good living growing cocoa.” World Cocoa Foundation is pleased to be a sponsor of STCP which is a regional program covering Liberia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. Cocoa producing countries, the US Agency for International Development, and other development agencies are also helping to provide support.
In February, I also had a blog entry on Liberia for those who are interested in reading.