Funders: USAID and Development Alternative Incorporated (DAI)
Duration: 2012-2013
Region: Western Africa
Country: Liberia
Sector: Food Security & Livelihoods Enhancement

The Challenge

Despite its important role in poverty reduction and environmental sustainability, there are key challenges to sustainable peri – urban vegetables production in Liberia. Some of these include inadequate institutional/legal frameworks, limited access to agricultural inputs and post production services, inadequate technical knowledge of peri – urban agricultural practices, organizational constraints, political and socio-cultural biases (lack of support mechanisms) ect.

The intervention

In addressing these constraints, VOSIEDA collaborated with Development Alterative Incorporated (DAI), to implement the Food and Enterprise Development Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture Project with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project assisted small-scale urban producers in Bong, Nimba and Lofa Counties to establish value-adding microenterprises and to organize marketing chains for selected products at the local level and for urban markets. The also established a platform on Urban Agriculture will an aim of developing longer-term policies and programs.  ​

Project partners: VOSIEDA (coordination) and DAI, in cooperation with local government, Ministry of Agriculture of Liberia, civil society, research and private sector stakeholders. ​

Activities​:

• Promote vegetables farming as a business, motivating farmers to carry out market driven vegetables production.
• Address the issues of input supply by supporting local input suppliers and creating local input supply access locally.
• Strengthen farmers’ groups and vegetables cooperatives for sustainable vegetables production.
• Plots measurements for selected sites and layout of standard vegetable field
• Introduce improved water management technology using labor saving technologies
• Stakeholder assessment
• Analysis and participatory innovation development of specific horticulture value chains.
• Analysis of the urban market system and consumer demand; consumer education campaigns
• Visioning and scenario development for UPA in Liberia to contribute to a more resilient agriculture sector.
• Establishment of chain actor platforms for selected products in various urban localities (Bong, Nimba and Lofa) . 
• Capacity building/strengthening of value chain actors and extension agents.
• Facilitating support to the processing and marketing of food products.

Project results:

• Training and extension service delivery to urban agriculture producers and processors in selected sectors (training of trainers and extension staff) was improved.
• Small-scale urban farmers trained in improved
• Improved service supply markets to the urban agriculture processing sector (e.g. solar based cold storage; processing equipment and product quality control and improvements, packaging and labelling) facilitated.
• Improved public policy and governance frameworks have been developed enabling a better functioning urban agriculture market system (strategic vision; policies, plans and regulations; protection of productive assets).

Key facts

Sector: Food Security & Livelihoods Enhancement
Domain: Agriculture and Food security
Benefiting zone: Liberia (Bong, Nimba and Lofa Counties)
Nature: Action Grants
Duration: 2012 – 2013
Status: Completed