SUCCESS Alliance Helps Liberian Farmer Protect His Trees, Plan Future

Liberia is home to two-thirds of the Upper Guinean Rainforest, which global conservation groups have named a biodiversity hotspot—a region with numerous native flora and fauna species that is under threat of losing a majority of those species. It also has been a conflict hotspot with two devastating civil wars within the last two decades.

However, with help from the international community, peace finally came to Liberia in 2004 and the nation began to heal the wounds from its violent past. It elected a new president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and began taking steps to rebuild its war-torn regions. Individuals and families slowly started returning from refugee camps where they had lived for 14 years, taking stock of their homes and planning their futures.

Among those was Mr. Donso, who returned to his family farm, which was overgrown from years of neglect after his family fled from vying rebel groups. Before the wars, his parents had grown cocoa, as had neighboring farmers. Liberia has fertile land and a climate similar to that of Ghana, which is known around the world for its exceptional cocoa production. Liberia’s conflicts, however, have prevented the country from competing with other cocoa-producing countries.

After returning to their home, Mr. Donso and his family (pictured on left) began the process of “brushing,” or using machetes to chop down trees and bushes on their several hectares of land. Their cocoa trees were not productive and although he did not like the idea of clear cutting the forest, Mr. Donso and his family decided to begin the laborious process of felling the cocoa and other trees to start a rice farm to earn much-needed income.

Mr. Donso began changing his mind, however, when he learned about ACDI/VOCA’s USDA-funded Livelihood Improvement for Farming Enterprises (LIFE) project.

“Because I heard that ACDI/VOCA was coming to train us in growing cocoa, I stopped cutting down my trees for a rice farm,” Mr. Donso said.

LIFE is part of the Sustainable Cocoa Enterprise Solutions for Smallholders (SUCCESS) Alliance program, which is a global public-private partnership consisting of USAID, USDA, the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), Mars, Inc., local partners and ACDI/VOCA. In Liberia, the project encourages farmers to keep trees on their farms to protect the native tropical rainforest and grow cocoa trees in their shade for extra cash.

Through the SUCCESS Alliance, ACDI/VOCA trains farmers in modern cocoa-growing techniques to increase production and improve quality in order to earn higher prices while also protecting the forest. Mr. Donso participates in farmer field schools (FFSs), where he learns about such things as how to prevent and fight off tree diseases, how to better manage his farm using ACDI/VOCA’s signature Farming as a Business curriculum, the importance of pest management, and other topics. He also learns about how to diversify his crops so that he will always have an income, even if one crop does not yield as well as expected.

“With assistance, I will grow cocoa for big prices on the market,” Mr. Donso said.

Through the SUCCESS Alliance, ACDI/VOCA helps smallholder farmers like Mr. Donso to protect the rainforest while also ensuring they have economic opportunities to better provide for their families.