Smallholder Agricultural Commodity Supply Chains
Liberia has 4.3 million hectares of tropical forest in the Upper Guinea Rainforest, which provides liveli-hoods for more than a third of Liberians. Despite commitments to protect its forest ecosystems, unsus-tainable agricultural practices and illegal logging continue to cause high rates of deforestation. This pro-ject uses innovative information technology to monitor deforestation and provide data and tools for effec-tive conservation policies. By establishing a multi-stakeholder platform, it will increase accountability, support policy implementation and improve coordination and knowledge sharing between state and non-state actors. Smallholder farmers will be supported to pilot and scale up sustainable agricultural practic-es. Project outcomes will contribute to promoting deforestation-free supply chains, reducing carbon diox-ide equivalent (CO2e) emissions, promoting climate-smart food production and safeguarding the livelihoods of forest-dependent people.
- Countries
- Liberia
- IKI funding
- 792,000.00 €
- Duration
- 04/2025 till 03/2028
- Status
- open
- Implementing organisation
- Deutsche Welthungerhilfe e.V.
- Implementing Partner
-
- Volunteers for Sustainable Development in Africa - Liberia
State of implementation/results
- IT-based deforestation monitoring:
- Digital deforestation-monitoring application will be designed
- Community monitoring structures are being established
- Multi-Stakeholder Platform and policy dialogue
- At the national level, the Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP) on deforestation-free agriculture continued to support coordination and inclusive policy dialogue among government, civil society, private sector, farmer organisations and forest-dependent communities.
- Consultations were conducted with county authorities in Lofa and Nimba to promote county government stakeholder coordination, creating a county-level MSP that will not only report to the national MSP, but also collaborate with communities and implementing partners on deforestation-free supply chains.
- An MSP meeting in June 2026 reviewed progress and developed a roadmap for policy reform. It assessed gaps in the Liberia Forest Sector Strategy 2025–2029 and the National Forestry Reform and Conservation Framework.
- A policy gap-analysis matrix is being finalised to inform a policy brief and further advocacy on deforestation-free agriculture, forest governance, and sustainable land use.
- Climate-smart rice and cocoa production:
- Importance of aligning climate-smart cocoa interventions with farmers’ labour availability, existing farm-management capacity and perceptions of alternative production practices
- In Lofa, alongside farmer training in good agronomic practices, 85,060 cocoa seedlings were planted, covering 76.49 ha.
- In Nimba, the recruitment of 300 cocoa farmers is ongoing.
- Also, in Nimba, inland valley swamps are being developed for sustainable rice production with farmers finalising the establishment of rice nurseries into the developed swamps.
- Current participation levels stand at 49% women, 51% men.
- Currently, twelve Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) are functional. Across ten communities, groups mobilised about €2,422 (LRD 514,000) in savings and €311 (LRD 65,920) in social funds. A further €707 (LRD 150,000) was issued as loans to 50 members.
- Awareness and knowledge exchange
- Media information campaigns on the negative impacts of deforestation and improved knowledge exchange, which can contribute to the up scaling of sustainable agricultural practices among smallholder farmers in Liberia, have been developed. The Information Education and Communication (IEC) materials were initially developed in English and are now being translated into local languages for wider reach.
- Radio jingles have been produced in preparation for broader awareness campaigns on deforestation-free agriculture, natural-resource management, and gender-responsive agriculture.
Latest Update:
09/2026
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