Entry by: Tracey Duffey, World Cocoa Foundation
Greetings from Liberia where I have been for the last week visiting cocoa farmer associations and cooperatives throughout three major cocoa-growing counties in Liberia: Bong, Lofa and Nimba.
Meeting with Selbelhill Farmers Association in Lofa County.
The focus of my 9-day visit is to work with our partners that the World Cocoa Foundation supports and particularly to assist Ms. Musu Flomo, our first USDA/WCF Norman E. Borlaug Cocoa Fellow from Liberia start her follow-on activities. Musu’s training under her 10-week fellowship in the U.S. (from October to November 2009) was on market information systems and cocoa quality with the University of Tennessee. Upon Musu’s return to Liberia, and starting this month, Musu will begin to implement a 6-month follow-on activity through funding from the ACDI/VOCA LIFE program that will be managed by the World Cocoa Foundation.
Musu will be working with two major cocoa programs: the IITA/STCP-Liberia program that is funded by USAID and the World Cocoa Foundation, and the ACDI/VOCA LIFE program funded by USDA.
STCP-Liberia has been working with cocoa farmers in Liberia since 2006 to provide training to cocoa farmers through Farmer Field Schools (FFS). Approximately 7,000 farmers have been trained to-date. In 2008, ACDI/VOCA LIFE was established and coordinated with STCP and FFS participants and FFS graduates to assist farmers to develop farmer associations so that they can bulk their cocoa together and sell directly to exporters at higher prices. To date, LIFE is working with 10 farmers’ associations, five cooperatives, and helping to establish an additional 7 new associations.
The training that Musu has received in the U.S. will allow her to work with ACDI/VOCA LIFE and IITA/STCP, with a main focus to develop training materials for farmers that will cover marketing and cocoa quality. The training will answer such questions as: how cocoa prices are determined and how cocoa beans are graded. By imparting this knowledge to the farmers, the farmers themselves will be able to assess their cocoa beans and know the actual price that they can obtain from buyers, as well as to understand the level of quality that is required to meet international standards.
As I spend each day this week traveling around these counties in Liberia, I am energized by the enthusiasm and openness of the members of the cocoa farmer associations. Musu and I have met two to five associations/cooperatives in each of the three counties over the course of our 6-day journey. At each meeting, we discuss for hours the improvements that farmers are experiencing through the training that they have received from both IITA/STCP and ACDI/VOCA LIFE, along with their recommendations of additional training needs and how the World Cocoa Foundation can assist further.
Please visit my next blog entries to meet some of the members and learn more about their experiences.