Nimba Western Range Iron Ore Project, Liberia
Biodiversity Conservation Programme 2011-2015
Report of an Investigation into
Continuous Cropping Opportunities
in Northern Nimba
Adam Manvell
VERSION DATE: 23 JUNE 2013
ArcelorMittal Liberia Ltd.
P.O. Box 1275 Tubman Boulevard at 15th Street Sinkor, Monrovia Liberia T +231 77 018 056 www.arcelormittal.com
Western Range Iron Ore Project, Liberia
Biodiversity Conservation Programme, 2011-2015 Investigations into Continuous Cropping Opportunities in Northern Nimba
Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ...... 3 2. MARKETING CHANNELS IN NORTHERN NIMBA...... 4 2.1 Marketplaces ...... 4 2.2 Other Routes to Markets ...... 7 2.3 A Look over the Borders ...... 8 2.4 Summary of Market Channels in Northern Nimba ...... 10 3. PERENNIAL CROP APPRAISAL ...... 11 4. SUGAR CANE VALUE CHAINS ...... 13 4.1 Introduction ...... 13 4.2 Cane Juice Processing Equipment ...... 13 4.2 Cane Juice Factory Operations ...... 14 4.3 Growing Sugar Cane ...... 16 4.4 Cane Juice Marketing ...... 17 4.5 Outlook ...... 18 5. Plantain-Banana Value Chains ...... 20 5.1 Introduction ...... 20 5.2 Growing Plantain ...... 20 5.3 Marketing Plantain ...... 22 5.4 Outlook ...... 24 6. CONSIDERATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 25 6.1 Closing Thoughts ...... 25 6.2 Summary of Recommendations ...... 25 REFERENCES ...... 27
List of Abbreviations
AML ArcelorMittal Liberia DSO Direct Shipping Ore ESIA Environmental and Social Impact Assessment FDA Forestry Development Authority GIS Geographic Information System
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Western Range Iron Ore Project, Liberia
Biodiversity Conservation Programme, 2011-2015 Investigations into Continuous Cropping Opportunities in Northern Nimba
1. INTRODUCTION
The overarching context of this report is a quest to find means of influencing local landuse pathways in northern Nimba to safeguard four forest blocks: the East Nimba Nature Reserve and the Gba, Zor and Bele Community Forests. Specifically it explores some of the the opportunities and constraints around two continuous cropping practises already found in the area, sugar cane and plantain, through a value chain approach.
The report is based on one month's fieldwork (7th March to 6th April, 2013) which included visits to two cross-border markets in Guinea as well as a short period in Monrovia. Fieldwork was ambitiously targeted at the sixteen study towns listed below:
1. Bonlah 2. Lugbeyee 3. Bentol 4. Vayampa 5. Sehyi-geh 6. Makinto 7. Zolowee 8. Gbapa 9. Leagbala 10. Camp 4 11. Kahnla 12. Sehtontuo 13. Dulay 14. Geipa 15. Yolowee 16. Zortapa
Because of the need to understand the role of market channels in the region, field work time had to be split between visiting the study towns and various market places. In the end, it was not possible to visit four of the sixteen study towns (shown underlined above) and several others were visited only very briefly. The methodology adopted was generally to seek out key informants in each town for informal discussions, which sometimes involved farm or mill visits. Prior experience in some of the towns around Tokadeh and at Bonlah, helped with finding suitable people to talk to. Discussions with Edmund Gbaa were also very helpful in this and other regards. In some instances, unannounced town visits after a long drive or walk meant that I had to talk to whoever was available as more knowledgeable informants were sometimes absent on their farms. The overall objective was to try and get a good grasp of the range of marketing opportunities and constraints across a large and diverse area with a good degree of complexity stemming from its position along two national borders. The results reported here will hopefully provide a solid basis to look more closely at household level opportunities and constraints through targeted surveys.
The report is structured as follows. The first section examines the various marketing channels in the region by considering marketplaces, other routes to market and cross-border issues. It then briefly examines the range of perennial crop options in the area before turning to examine the value chains of sugar cane and plantain. Each value chain examination terminates with a review of possible directions for future development. The report then concludes with some final reflections and a summary of recommendations. Following this is an appendix that reviews proposals made in the Phase 2 ESIA (Volume 3, Part 1.2 ) for promoting sustainable agriculture in the region.
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Western Range Iron Ore Project, Liberia
Biodiversity Conservation Programme, 2011-2015 Investigations into Continuous Cropping Opportunities in Northern Nimba
2. MARKETING CHANNELS IN NORTHERN NIMBA
There are a variety of channels by which farm products move from producers in northern Nimba to their eventual consumers. Though the marketing options available to the producer are partly shaped by the demand and nature of their particular products, the specifics of their location are paramount to their range of choice: marketing channels are configured very differently for example between Bentol, Gbapa and Setontuo. To better understand these differences, a useful distinction can be made between dedicated marketplaces where producers and traders assemble on a weekly or daily basis to transact, and less visible and more diffuse channels where traders either go directly to producers or producers organise themselves to expedite their goods to distant buyers. Key aspects of these different channels in northern Nimba are introduced below followed by a brief discussion about one of the most complicated factors influencing markets in the area, its borders.
2.1 Marketplaces
Figure 1 illustrates the most significant marketplaces for the 16 study towns. The distinction made between daily and weekly markets is however somewhat problematic. Sanniquellie could perhaps better be described, following Handwerker (1978), as a daily market with an important periodic function, since Saturday is with doubt a day on which a significant volume of exchange takes place. Karnplay, which is rather less important for the study towns could be similarly classified. In contrast, though the cities of Nzérékoré and Danané are said to have peaks in trade on certain days of the week (Wednesday and Saturday respectively), there is still a large volume of trade conducted throughout the week, at least it is said in Nzérékoré—–the situation in Danané is unknown, but in any case it is (currently) only of minor significance for the study towns.
The periodic market system in Nimba county is relatively recent and was imposed by the Liberian government in the wake of its 'pacification' of the region in the 1920s (Handwerker, 1980). Even as late as the 1950s the District Commissioner would fine town chiefs who did not send any market women to Sanniquellie (Kaye, 1977). In more recent times, several periodic markets have appeared in northern Nimba but not all of them have persisted. Though road maintenance has often been significant in the success of these new markets, other factors, such as local politics should also be born in mind. A brief outline of the history of some of these markets is useful because not only is it instructive for contemplating the long-term development of market opportunities in the area, but also in terms of understanding local expectations.
Sometime probably in the 1960s LAMCO constructed a road from to Lugbeyee to the Guinea border and built an iron bridge over the St John (Mani) river which became the official border crossing of Bololewee. With Nzérékoré only 20km away by road, this is said to have become1 the most important crossing point to Guinea in Nimba county. In due course, NIMBACO, a logging company spun-off from LAMCO in the early 1970s, built a road to Bonlah and a Thursday market was held there before the war. Today though the Saturday market at Lugbeyee still attracts some vehicles from Yekepa, it is almost a motor transport terminus as the road on to Bololewee is in a poor state and sees very limited traffic apart from motorbikes, and the Gbonlah road is impassable in the rains due to a broken bridge just outside of town. How market activity at Lugbeyee will adapt to any transport improvements in this area will be very interesting to see as in the intervening years a market also on a Saturday has emerged only 13 km away, but over the border at Konkoré.
1 Figures to support this local assertion have not been seen and the degree of legitimate cross-border trade in the Sékou Touré years (1958-1984) needs to be queried as border closures and mass emigration were a feature in the Lola Prefecture at least during this period (Rossi, 1993).
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Western Range Iron Ore Project, Liberia
Biodiversity Conservation Programme, 2011-2015 Investigations into Continuous Cropping Opportunities in Northern Nimba
Figure 1: Marketplaces and Principal Roads in and around Northern Nimba Key: Market places used by producers in the 16 study towns (red circles) are shown with gold stars (for those in Liberia) and blue boxes (cross-border). For weekly markets, the day of the week they are held at each location are indicated using the first letters of the day, and daily markets are indicated with a 'd'.
East of the Nimba ridge, LAMCO constructed and maintained various roads in the area2 and this was probably instrumental in the eventually successful installation of Zualay market which was first (?) attempted in 1976 (Smith, 1977). Around the same time, Dualay started a Thursday market which apparently flourished when a log bridge over the Cestos (Nuon) was constructed c. 1981 by LAMCO (?) and enabled vehicles to come over from Côte d'Ivoire. The closure of the border with the war and the collapse of the bridge c.1996 brought an end to this market and a shift of activity to Zorgowee, which used to have a Wednesday market (ibid). With the current rehabilitation of the Dualay to Zorgowee road, the Dualay market has apparently restarted. Whether it will regain its former importance without a new vehicle crossing to Danipleu, remains to be seen, but road improvements between Seykimpa and Zorgowee would help pull it closer to the Sanniquellie marketing sphere. Another marketing direction change this side of the ridge post-LAMCO relates to the attraction of Yekepa. Smith (ibid.) records people from Zualay trading there in 1976 on visits which involved at least an overnight stay with relatives. Whilst he does not say how they travelled there, the options today are somewhat different since on the one hand the Grassfield back road has closed due to a bridge collapse but on the other, cessation of mining on the ridge has permitted a more direct, albeit arduous, footpath. At the same time the attraction of Yekepa as a market is not what it used to be.
2 LAMCO's motivation to do this in this area, which was largely outside their concession is unknown, but could possibly be linked to logging access and/or community compensation for the run-off from their mining which included their relocation of Setontuo around 1978 following a landslide.
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Western Range Iron Ore Project, Liberia
Biodiversity Conservation Programme, 2011-2015 Investigations into Continuous Cropping Opportunities in Northern Nimba
The distribution of marketplaces in and around northern Nimba has emerged around the road network, and as the above shows, the persistence of them is often linked to the maintenance of road access. No attempt has been made to classify the state of what are thought to be the most relevant transport arteries shown in Figure 1. As needs must, vehicles transport people and goods over sometimes quite dire roads in the area due to limited alternative routes. In the absence of traffic data, one way of looking at the most important destinations for products from the area is to consider the distribution of urban centres. Table 1 assembles population data concerning the largest population centres shown in Figure 1.
Table 1: Largest Population Centres within c. 60km of Yekepa NB: The E-Geopolis (http://www.e-geopolis.eu) data is considered the best available population data for Africa (Potts, 2011). The 2008 Census data is from a list of urban areas of 5,000 or more persons which only appears in the provisional results available at http://www.emansion.gov.lr/doc/census_2008provisionalresults.pdf
Centre Population Date & Source Nzérékoré 181,631 2010 projection E-Geopolis Danané 83,233 2010 projection E-Geopolis
Ganta 41,106 2008 National Census Lola 33,051 2010 projection E-Geopolis Sanniquellie 11,415 2008 National Census Saclepea 12,117 2008 National Census Karnplay 7,664 2008 National Census
To put the figures in Table 1 in their wider context, Nzérékoré, the regional apex city, is the third largest urban centre within a 300 km radius of Yekepa. Size-wise it is not too far behind Daloa, the cocoa capital of Côte d'Ivoire (pop. 232,309, E-Geopolis projection, 2010), but is more than five times smaller than the largest centre within this sphere3, Monrovia, population 1,010,970 (2008 National Census). The significance of the Monrovian market is also reinforced by the fact that of the 67 population centres with over 10,000 people within a radius of the same distance as Yekepa to Monrovia (c. 300km), only five are over 100,000 and 12 over 50,000. Given northern Nimba's relative ease of access to the main highway to Monrovia, it is no surprise that it is the principle destination for most, but certainly not all, agricultural products marketed in the region. However, much smaller but local urban markets can still be important outlets for local producers as access to them requires few, if any, intermediaries. In this regard there is a glaring omission from Table 1, Yekepa.
Details on how Yekepa was provisioned in the LAMCO years are rather scanty. It is also difficult to establish its maximum population. In the mid 1970s, which may have been the population zenith, two authors cite a figure of 25,000 (Zetterström, 1976: 17 & Smith, 1977: 34), with the former author quoting an additional population figure of 2,500 in Camp 4. In the early 1980s Camp 4 was said to have a population of 10,000 (PfP, 1982) and Marguerat gives a figure of 17,000 for Yekepa which probably includes Camp 4 (1985:129). It can be safely assumed that the majority of the Yekepa-Camp 4 population were not producing much or any of their own food supplies, but where it came from is not clear. Yekepa's P-Market and Camp 4 were probably the principle marketplaces for the local workforce (Zetterström, 1971 & PfP, 1982) and presumably had an extensive supply catchment to meet the needs of the large non-farming population. Today the populations of these two settlements are much smaller and though the E-Geopolis projection, 2010 for "LAMCO Concession" is 10,000 this figure does not square with the 2008 census data which does not list either among the country's urban areas of 5,000 or more persons. The percent of these populations who farm today is also probably higher than it was in the past.
3 In fact one would need to go 550 km in a straight line from Yekepa to find a larger population centre than Monrovia, Abidjan (pop. 4,114,191: E-Geopolis projection, 2010).
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Western Range Iron Ore Project, Liberia
Biodiversity Conservation Programme, 2011-2015 Investigations into Continuous Cropping Opportunities in Northern Nimba
2.2 Other Routes to Markets
"The farmer's ability to market his crop outside the traditional market is hampered by a number of factors. Mandingo truckers may come to the village to purchase loads of vegetables to take to lucrative urban markets. The villagers themselves must rely on "money taxis", a costly form of passenger transport." (PfP, 1982)
Since the above was written about farmers in northern Nimba over 30 years ago, there have been some notable changes in the accessibility of alternate routes to markets but it remains a moot point as to whether these have brought greater equality of access. The emergence and growth of the Gobachop market at Red Light, Paynesville on the outskirts of Monrovia and the advent and spread of mobile telephony are probably the biggest changes. The proliferation of motorbikes is another change but is probably only important for moving high value to weight goods such as cane juice and red oil.
Gobachop is probably Liberia's largest terminal market and is thought to have emerged during the civil war because of its locality near the front line that ringed Monrovia for much of the conflict (MoA, 2007). It functions both as a wholesale and retail market and the former role offers an important route to market because of the numerous registered4 women who collect products coming in off trucks from up-country for re-sale around the city and its suburbs. For those sending goods down, these customers are often called "Say-Pay" women because they do not pay for the goods they receive until they have been sold. To receive goods, Say-Pay women seek to establish relationships with intermediaries/producers where the vehicle is loaded. From my limited understanding of this system, these relationship are often established by introductions, are not limited to kith and kin and are maintained over the phone. The Say-Pay women are typically informed in advance of what is coming down to them and to some extent they may also place orders for certain goods to be sent. The driver carries a transport manifest book which details what was loaded on by whom and which woman will receive it. This is handed over to someone from the LMA who makes sure the receivers pay the transport fees for their goods. The driver, who typically follows a regular weekly scheduled run to the receiving area, or a designated person from the home community, are the means by which senders gets their monies from their Say-Pay customers.
Trust is a key element under-pining the Gobachop system but reports of senders never receiving their monies, or getting them late, are not uncommon. The separation of the three key stages in the movement of goods from rural producers to urban consumers (rural collection, transportation and urban reception and onward sale) incorporated in the system clearly have advantages for each of the actors which are reinforced by their mutual needs. The senders of goods need transport but may not have the capital to advance this, the transporters need to have a guaranteed load at the pick-up point but cannot get this outside of marketplaces (where they also work5) and the receivers need a regular supply of products but can't afford the time and cost to purchase them directly from the countryside.
In the Gbehlay-Geh district these arrangements have become notably well organised and various "car motors6" operate scheduled pick-ups in several towns. In Goagurtuo, 8.5 km east of Zualay, there is a Gobachop Market Association (also called the Truck Farmers Association) which reportedly has 75 registered members including 40 women. Thanks to contacts from their customers at Gobachop, they have an agreement with a Mandingo transporter to send a car motor every Saturday that they guarantee to be ready to fill so it can leave on Sunday. The association also makes sure that the 4.4 km road from Kpoaley to their community remains passable. To what extent this association operates
4 The Liberian Market Association (LMA) is "a semi-autonomous body which is mandated to provide assistance to the marketers throughout the entire marketing system" (MoA, 2007: 17). It is a powerful organisation and Gobachop and Red Light are its biggest source of revenue from the various fees it charges the several thousand registered traders operating there (ibid.). 5 Sanniquellie for example is an important bulking market where larger trucks are filled with various goods bought on Saturday at the 'field' by many different buyers to be sent on to their customers at Gobachop. At Zualay on the other hand, car-motors seemed on market day to make pick-ups in the surrounding towns as well as at the marketplace. 6 This is a corruption of Kia Motors and is a generic name for small trucks of which the Korean makers were the first—or maybe most popular—in Liberia and hence the name. I suspect the original model was the Kia Rhino which has a nominal load capacity of 5 tons.
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Western Range Iron Ore Project, Liberia
Biodiversity Conservation Programme, 2011-2015 Investigations into Continuous Cropping Opportunities in Northern Nimba
as an exclusive route to market is not clear. Though members are said to have priority to load their goods every week, the possibility for non-members to come to an arrangement with them was also mentioned. Certainly elsewhere in the district complaints were heard about the senders refusing goods deemed to be of lower quality when there was a surplus. As brokers of access to what at some times and places may be the only route to market, senders are clearly in a powerful position. More detailed research is required on these processes.
Many senders using the Gobachop system are essentially offering a farm-gate purchasing service and this can take various different forms to the one outlined above. In Gbapa there are two or three market women who buy and store various farm products from the surrounding area before travelling down with their goods to Gobachop generally every week. Depending on whether they are a registered LMA trader, and whether their registration covers the goods they have bought, they may sell wholesale directly and/or use Say-Pay women on arrival. Selling at Gobachop involves not only being registered, the ease of which is unknown, but also the payment of a daily ground fee. One Gbapa woman's incentive for making the journey to Gobachop and engaging directly with the market seemed to be to recycle the sales monies into imported rice7 to be carried home to be sold to finance the following week's purchases. Though on the face of it she might seem to be making a healthy profit from her trade, it is important to bear in mind her need for constant liquidity. Not only does she need to have money to buy her goods locally, she must pay for them to be transported locally and she may also incur warehousing fees and loading charges before they even get on the road to Monrovia. There is also the financing of her relationships with her various regular local customers to whom she may extend credit of 3-5,000 LD.
Due to the still generally extensive nature of farming in northern Nimba, as well as the local topography and hydrography, travel times between sites of on-farm production and the nearest accessible road or town where onward transport can be found can be significant. Bentol of all the study towns, is perhaps the most extreme in this regard being at least 2 hours from the nearest road. Research summarised by Sieber (2009) has shown that the 'first mile' from the farm to the buying point is the most costly (per t/km) and difficult part of the journey of farm produce to its ultimate destination as most is done by time-consuming head-loading, predominantly be women and children, which is the most costly of all options. In northern Nimba, which is unsuitable for draught animals, bicycles and river transport, head loading predominates and only in a few instances are motorbikes or wheel-barrows used. As we will see later, the available data appears to support Sieber's contentions about head-loading costs. It is therefore not surprising to find that another marketing route is for buyers to negotiate lower prices on farm and then take on the 'first mile' transport themselves. Some coffee and cocoa buyers based in Bonlah for example do this at Bentol and one reported taking items such as salt and sugar to the people he buys from. To what extent these gifts are simply a way of doing business or seek to establish longer term buying relationships is unclear, but from a discussion at Bentol there seems to be a positive disposition towards these visiting buyers.
2.3 A Look over the Borders
A rather obvious fact about northern Nimba is that it has two neighbours, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire, each with a different currency, the Franc Guinean (FG) and the Franc CFA (FCFA). As exchange rate movements can influence market flows, an attempt to show how the relative value of these two currencies fluctuated from May 2005 to May 2013 is shown in Figure 2. This graphic shows fluctuations against the Liberian Dollar held constant at its May 2005 rate, but in reality it too moves in value. For a different portrayal, using partly the same data but pegged against the US Dollar, the currency of choice for imported rice wholesalers in the region, see WFP (2010: 17). Regardless of the best way to illustrate it, both graphs clearly indicate important fluctuations in recent years, particularly as regards the FG—as the exchange rate of the FCFA is fixed to the Euro, it is perhaps less volatile— which have had an important bearing on local market flows. For example, the devaluation of the FG in late 2009, led to coffee and cocoa from Guinea appearing in Liberia markets where prices had become more attractive (ibid.).
7 This is clearly an important item that the car motors so essential to this trade haul inland on their return trip. Cement and corrugated zinc are also reported to be important in return loads. To what extent there is any cross- subsidisation between inland and Monrovia trips in the calculation of transport costs is not known.
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Western Range Iron Ore Project, Liberia
Biodiversity Conservation Programme, 2011-2015 Investigations into Continuous Cropping Opportunities in Northern Nimba
Figure 2: Interbank Monthly Exchange Rate Fluctuations around the Liberian Dollar, for the CFA Franc (orange) and Guinean Franc (green) (2008-213). Source: www.oanda.com
The data shown in Figure 2 are for interbank exchange rates and these may be quite different to what buyers and sellers get in the smaller cross-border marketplaces around northern Nimba. Quite a few people who reside in Liberia but sell at these places reported that because of the unfavourable rates available, they generally convert the currency they get from their sales into goods, such as clothes and cigarettes, for resale at home. Better rates are said to be available at places like Nzérékoré, but to what extent knowledge of the official exchange rates circulates in the border regions is not known.
The above brief description of the importance of exchange rates to market flows in northern Nimba only hints at the significance of the national borders in the area. Igue (1989) has identified the region shown in Figure 1 plus a south eastern extension from Saclepea to Tappita across the border to Toulépleu and back up to Danané, as one of West Africa's twelve 'périphéries nationales'. These are defined as autonomous economic spaces within nation states that function on the basis of marked differences to the states they are peripheral to. These differences include not only the widespread use of two or more currencies but also, porous borders where the few customs officers are co-opted as allies in local commerce and strong shared ethnic identities across the colonially imposed frontiers which are critical for cross-border transactions. In the 24 intervening years the civil conflicts in the wider region have probably reconfigured this periphery in some aspects, but others have certainly been strengthened, perhaps most notably along the Guinean borders of Yarmein District. Extended periods of residence just over the border among people of the same ethnic group (Ma (Mano) along the Guinea/Liberian border and largely Dan (Gio) along the Ivoirian/Liberian side) are likely to have deepened already strong relationships. There is also anecdotal evidence, as well as some research (Black & Sessay, 1997), to indicate that the years spent in Guinea at least8, stimulated/coincided with agricultural change processes which were later brought home.
Another important aspect of the tri-national periphery around Mount Nimba is the interfacing of different agricultural and industrial policies. Though this a complex shifting topic that is not easy to summarise, the stand out picture is that the Liberian portion is sandwiched between a major breadbasket of Guinea (and beyond)—the Guinée Forestière region, see Chaléard et al. (2002) for its rice provisioning role—and Côte d'Ivoire's second largest commercial white rice production zone (Becker & Yoboué, 2009). All three countries are part of the Coalition for African Rice Development
8 The only relevant report of Liberian refugees in Côte d'Ivoire located so far is focussed on the town of Danané, where only a few were involved in agriculture (Utas, 2004). It is not known however if refugees from the rural population of Gbehlay-Geh used the camps located there.
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Western Range Iron Ore Project, Liberia
Biodiversity Conservation Programme, 2011-2015 Investigations into Continuous Cropping Opportunities in Northern Nimba
(CARD)9 and have elaborated ambitious national rice development strategies aiming to achieve self sufficiency by 2018. In contrast to Liberia, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire have track records of rice development projects in recent decades and their agriculture and extension services are far superior. Changes stemming from their rice policies could well have more impact in northern Nimba than anything promulgated in Monrovia10. The over-flow of Guinea's historic agricultural and industrial policies is already evident in parts of Yarmein today where various processing machines can be seen and herbicides are reportedly used by some cocoa farmers, all of which emanate from across the nearby permeable border.
2.4 Summary of Market Channels in Northern Nimba
Figure 3 attempts to summarise the various primary market channels used by farmers in northern Nimba. The blue boxes and orange hexagons indicate first point of sale options, the difference being that orange hexagons also have bulking and re-distributive functions. The category 'Other Liberian and cross-border destinations' has not been covered in the preceding discussion but essentially covers more discrete market pathways such as family members transporting products for sale on visits to urban-based relatives. Two critical points to note from Figure 3 are: (1) The variety of combinations by which a producer can theoretically get their product to the first point of sale and what these mean in terms of decisions about paying transport costs (both money and time) or selling instead to intermediaries. (2) How spatial location (distance to road, market place or border) and time (in relation to for example seasonality, gluts and dearths, currency fluctuations, road closures etc.) interact to finely tune the local nature of marketing opportunities and constraints
Figure 3: Schematic Diagram of Primary Marketing Channels in Northern Nimba
9 http://www.riceforafrica.org/new/ 10 Despite Liberia's rice self-sufficiency target, support for rice imports remain politically expedient to feed a large percentage of the population for whom the outfall of the 1979 rice riots have not been forgotten. On 4 January 2013, Executive Order No. 45 once again suspended rice import tariffs, first imposed after 2008 when world rice prices more than doubled.
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Western Range Iron Ore Project, Liberia
Biodiversity Conservation Programme, 2011-2015 Investigations into Continuous Cropping Opportunities in Northern Nimba
3. PERENNIAL CROP APPRAISAL
Having looked at the broad organisation of marketing channels in northern Nimba in the previous sections, it is time to turn to the specifics of the perennial crops examined to see how their production, transformation and storage characteristics inter-relate to the opportunity and constraints of these channels.
To help think about continuous cropping opportunities and constraints in northern Nimba it is useful to first look at how crops can be grown in one place for an extended period without a fallow break. Three not necessarily exclusive ways of doing so can be observed in the region: (1) Through management of soil nutrients through inputs, such as composting in home gardens; (2) By exploiting nutrient hotspots in the landscape, such as certain swamps and toe slope soils; (3) By growing and managing perennial crops.
Of these, the most widely available opportunities and with probably the longest durations11 are within perennial crops. The category perennial crops is however broad and there is a fuzzy definitional middle ground for crops such as cassava and capsicum peppers which continue to bear for several years after the annual rice they are typically inter-planted with has been harvested. Though these crops could, and sometimes are considered to be short-lived perennials this then prompts questions about the cut-off between these and long-lived perennials. For the purpose of this study, the perennial crops reviewed here are all capable of being grown productively in the same spot for five or more years without the need for a fallow break or soil inputs. To put this duration in some context, there are probably few, if any, traditional swamp farms in the area which could be annually sown with rice for this period without nutrient additions.
Table 2 summarises some of the key characteristics of some important perennial crops found in northern Nimba. The crop list is not exhaustive and it could be argued that mango, avocado and papaya are more important than citrus or kola, but no data are available to consider this. It could also be argued that ratoon cropping of pineapple would allow it to meet the five year threshold, though this is not thought to be practised.
Two important production dimensions have been left out of Table 2, tenure and gender issues. All the listed tree crops are generally considered locally (and across Liberia) within the category 'life trees' which refers not necessarily to their longevity but more the critical fact that they have been conferred life by a human hand and thereby belong to the planter or their heirs or designates. For reasons to be discussed in more detail in the review of the proposals in the Phase 2 ESIA (Appendix A), this tenure characteristic means that there are important restrictions on who can plant them where in the local landscape. Added to this that tree crops are generally also men's crops in Liberia (Carter & Mends- Cole, 1982)—though more research is needed on this topic in the local context—they were not considered suitable for inclusion in the value chain analysis.
In contrast to tree crops, sugar-cane and plantain bananas are not considered as 'life trees' and may thus have more flexible tenure possibilities as we will see. They are also more often grown by women than tree crops. Two other reasons why they were chosen for study are that they reach maturity rapidly, unlike tree crops and can be harvested year round, which is a characteristic only really shared with one tree crop, rubber. They therefore may offer some interesting opportunities for farmers, but to illuminate these it is necessary to understand their varied pathways from farm to final point of consumption.
11 As home gardening has probably existed since the settlement of the region, it may be that if any original gardens sites are still in use, which is possible, these may out-date the oldest planted tree crops, which are probably kola. Far more certainly, the duration of option number two for continuous cropping can be considered much more limited.
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Western Range Iron Ore Project, Liberia
Biodiversity Conservation Programme, 2011-2015 Investigations into Continuous Cropping Opportunities in Northern Nimba
Table 2: Some Key Characteristics of Some Perennial Crops Grown in Northern Nimba NB: The information contained in this table is based on a combination of preliminary fieldwork plus additional information from research conducted elsewhere, not necessarily far away, in Liberia (Brown (1989), Ford (1992), Frankenberger et al. (1985) , MoA (2007b), Muzik (1952) and Westphal et al. (1987)). It therefore requires further field verification and completion in northern Nimba
Pests & Current Processing Crop Site Requirements Time to Bear Lifespan Seasonality Labour Requirements Marketability Diseases Options Year round but best Network of rubber Production High and skilled for daily catholic, but not in latex in dry season buying stations and Coagulation with Rubber 7 years peaks around tapping. Under-brushing none ? swamps and tapping more farm gate pick-up formic acid 30 yrs also important difficult in rains options Black pod a If unable to sell soon Brushing and disease Fermentation. Basic Fertile soils. Dark common problem after harvest, proper Cocoa 4 to 7 yrs 50yrs? Jul-Aug prevention measures grade prices earths plus other drying needed to high available in Guinea diseases avoid spoilage More under-brushing De-hulling obtains a Less fertile soils Has a longer on-farm Coffee 3 to 4 yrs 40 yrs? Nov-Dec needed than mature ? higher price in than cocoa life than cocoa cocoa Guinea Tend to be planted Storage techniques Kola (7) 12 to15 yrs 100 yrs + Oct-April? Minimal after planting none None around settlements can increase value Tend to be planted Problem of gluts and Citrus 4 to 5 yrs ? Oct-Dec? Minimal under-brushing minor None beyond peeling around settlements transport Makinto- Dry season peak but Limited after established Yields better than Oil, soap and kernel tenera oil catholic? 3 to 5 years 30 yrs? longer season than Harvesting medium. ? country palm but oil oil palms country palm Transport can be high less valuable Alluvial soils Year round harvest Limited after established Easy to sell after 7 to 12 4-15 yrs soil Majority processed Sugarcane preferred but also possible if planting Harvest medium. Groundhogs processing and months dependent ? into cane juice deeper upland soils staggered Transport can be high product doesn't spoil Year round harvest Demand essentially Plantain Light, deep, fertile 12 to 14 15-20 yrs soil Some brushing. 'First possible if planting Nematodes + urban, bulky to Cooked Bananas soils. Dark earths months dependent ? mile' transport high staggered transport
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4. SUGAR CANE VALUE CHAINS
4.1 Introduction
Rather uniquely, sugar cane is grown in Liberia by smallholders predominantly for the distillation of rum, locally called cane juice, with any not used for this purpose chewed as a snack. Upon the payment of an annual liquor distillers license and associated fees to the local revenue agent, small- scale distillation is a legal activity unlike the situation in all neighbouring countries or indeed much of the continent. This makes for some interesting market opportunities in northern Nimba.
The history of sugar cane production and distillation in northern Nimba is unclear12. The oldest 'steam mill', the popular name for a slow speed, single cylinder stationary engine driving a two or three roll grinder via a belt, was reported at Yolowee and though it was said to have been purchased in 1955, the engine number proves it was made in 1961, so it must have been acquired at a later date. Hand mills were reported to have been in use in 1964 at both Camp 4 and Gbapa. Using Department of Treasury figures that he considered unreliable, von Gnielinski (1968) reports the existence of 350 cane mills in Nimba County of which an unspecified, but presumably high number13 were hand operated. He also notes that in both Nimba and Lofa counties, the border populations were involved in a considerable cane juice trade with Guinea, leading to a significant increase in cane cultivation in the borderlands. The situation in 2013 is not fully known but a visit to the Chief Revenue Agent for the Sanniquellie Tax Collectorate, one of three in Nimba County, was only able to yield information for one of its two districts, Gbehlay-Geh, which reportedly has 58 operational mills—license fees are not levied on broken mills. Information was still being collected for Sanniquellie-Maan District. Table 3 presents figures from an incomplete survey of the study towns which suggests that there are at least 30 steam mills in the area and at least four of these are not currently working. It also shows that at least four towns previously had operational hand mills, and may still do, but these are not currently in use. As steam mills are so essential for the first stage of producing cane juice, it is necessary to understand their availability and operation as a critical part of the value chain, since without them, there can be no chain.
4.2 Cane Juice Processing Equipment
In July 2008, I witnessed a hand mill in operation at Zolowee, something which is now probably only seen when a steam mill is broken and there is no other choice. Though considerably cheaper than steam mills (but hard to find) they involve at least four people to operate (two to turn the shaft, one to feed the cane and another to chop and prepare it) and are significantly less efficient14. Establishing a cane juice 'factory' with a steam mill and associated equipment is however a significant investment. There are three main components to the factory, each with essential bits of equipment. Grinding the cane requires a motor and grinder set which a typical price new is around $4,500. The ground juice, called 'beer' then needs to sit in barrels for a week to ferment. A sufficient number of these is vital to ensure that the mill can still operate without delays because of barrel shortages. One factory serving about 10-15 customers had eight barrels and had, at times, to resort to borrowing others and another with around 40 customers had 20 but the owner desired more. Plastic drums are preferred and cost around $40 each, but sometimes steel barrels are used even though they rust. The last component is the distillation equipment and there are some options here. A copper pot and associated condensing pipes to cook half a drum of beer costs new in the order of $700 and a larger one, with pipes, for one drum of beer is around $1,200. Cheaper steel pots can be used but do not last very long, can blow out and are said to alter the taste of the cane juice. A steel drum is also needed at this stage to cool the condensing pipes.
12 Campbell (1957: 143) notes that it wasn't until the 1940s that the Liberian Government relaxed its attitude towards guns and gin in the interior and started issuing licenses for the importation of cane mills and stills. Whether this only applied to 'Bandiland' (northern Lofa) where he worked, or all of the Hinterland, which had distinct rules from the littoral counties, is not yet known. 13 Schulze (1973: 128) using similar data to von Gnielinski cites national level figures from the same period that indicate that the ratio of hand mills to steam mills was in the order of 4.5 to 1. 14 Though much depends on the variety and freshness of the cane, Gnielinski (1968) cites figures that suggest a steam mill can produce 15 to 17.5 times more raw juice per day than a hand mill.
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Table 3: Preliminary Census of Sugarcane Mills in Northern Nimba. Source: Fieldwork, March-April 2013.
Town No. of Mills* Mills in Past Bonlah 2 handmills not in use 2 handmills Lugbeyee 4-6 (not confirmed) ?
Bentol 0 2 handmills Vayampa 1 Since c 2007 Sehyi-geh 7 ? Makinto known to be present but not visited ? Zolowee 7 (not confirmed) Yes Gbapa 4 (1 down) Yes Leagbala no: use 1 in Gbapa 1 handmill Camp 4 2 (1 down) 5 Kahnla early 2013, 1 crusher just bought Yes Sehtontuo not visited - Dulay 0 2 handmills Geipa 4 (1 down): not confirmed ? Yolowee 1 down Since 1955 Zortapa not visited -
* These are 'steam' mills, i.e. motorised unless otherwise stated.
Apart from the aforementioned equipment costs, to which must be added fees for transporting them, cane juice factory start-up costs include the building materials for two shelters (one for grinding, one for distillation) plus cement for the motor and grinder mounting blocks. There are also the annual license fees, which require 2,000 LD for business registration, 8,000 LD for the actual distillers license and apparently15 1,000 LD for every pot, making a total of 12,000 LD or c. $175. According to the Chief Revenue Agent at Sanniquellie, these costs can be scheduled for payment over a period. Non- payment can however result in seizure of the condensation pipes.
In all, the very minimum start-up capital for a new cane juice factory is around $8,000, which is a very significant sum in Liberia. Wealthy backers, often times relatives who have moved away to Monrovia or abroad, are a common source of finance. Migration remittances have, at least in the past, been used for this in Nimba County (Dorjahn, 1971: 60). Some of the factories at Geipa were reportedly financed from company pay-off money, but this has not been verified. ArcelorMittal compensation payments for land loss around Mount Tokadeh have certainly funded some mills at both Sey Geh and Makinto (Jerry Funbah pers comm). Pre-war, Partnership for Productivity (PfP) was Liberia's largest non-formal financial intermediary (Lassen et al. 1989) and is said to have provided loans for steam mills, though this has not been confirmed. Today an equivalent financial service has yet to re-emerge but AfriLand First Bank are starting to be active in the Karnplay area and discussions with their CEO indicate they are keen to expand their operations in northern Nimba and have already provided credit elsewhere in the country for steam mills—see later.
4.2 Cane Juice Factory Operations
Figures provided by three steam mill operators indicate that the maximum daily production is somewhere in the range of 10-15 barrels of beer per day, which assuming each has a nominal volume of 55 US gallons equates to 2,080-3,120 litres. How often they run at this capacity depends on the harvesting schedule within the mill's supply area. The critical point is that mill operators do not have control over the harvest of much of the cane they process. Though they may grow some cane around
15 This was according to the Chief Revenue Agent, but the official documentation was not provided.
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the mill, the profitability of their enterprise is largely dependent on the processing services they offer other growers, and this is where this perennial crop has some rather unique organisational attributes.
As distillation requires a regular supply of water, and cane grows best in alluvial soils, mill owners always establish their factories beside creeks and rivers. Harvested cane is cumbersome and there are labour limitations as to how far it can be head loaded. These have not been fully investigated but indications are that 30 minutes’ walk, c. 2 km is towards the very maximum possible. Though some cane farmers can rely on their own labour and their families for haulage, for others this transport has to paid for, which is not only a financial outlay to be offset against profits but also requires organisational skills. At Leagbala, which doesn't have a mill, one cane grower was seen struggling to organise the transport of a large pile of cut cane to a mill in Gbapa nearly 2 km away by road. Not many farmers in a similar situation have a car transport option he was looking to arrange, but the key point is that the longer it took to organise, the more his cane was drying out and its potential juice yields were declining.
Depending on the specifics of the tenure geometry and soil suitability within a factory's approximate 2 km supply radius, surrounding farmers may be able to grow cane on their own land for processing at the mill. It also happens that mill operators will invite or accept offers from non-family members to grow cane on their land around their factory. For example, one mill owner at Gbapa said he had 35 customers growing cane on his land plus an additional seven growing on their own. The social dynamics of who gets these opportunities and how they develop was not investigated, but the interesting point is that if somebody invests in a mill, other people can be enabled to benefit from growing cane; in other words it has a multiplier effect, which is not the case with individual tree crop plantations bar a few labour hire opportunities. Questions need to be answered, however, about the exchange relationships between growers and mill owners, as in many cases they have a virtual monopoly.
Charges for using a cane juice factory are invariably paid in kind, typically in terms of a percentage of the raw juice ground, with a typical rate being one drum to the owner for every three extracted, though a slightly high figure (37.5%) and as low as 20% were also reported. In Vanyanpa, this 'toll' was said to be made in terms of the final product, with a levy of one or two gallons of cane juice for every drum ground. Though this format is not unheard of, and indeed Westphal, et al. (1987: 47) reported this as the only payment method in Nimba County before the war, it is perhaps more complicated by variable yields and decisions about distilling the beer once or twice, which may result in more protracted negotiations. In situations where the toll is in the form of the beer, it remains unclear as to what extent the customer is in charge of the distillation process as not only does this require regular water cooling of the condensing pipes but also tending the fire and ensuring a wood supply. As an indication of the time needed to complete distillation, it was said at one factory in Zolowee that half a drum of beer started at 9.30am wouldn't be finished until midnight and that was if it was producing well. Much more research is needed on the finer points of factory management arrangements, but what is undoubtedly clear is that a considerable deal of organisational skill is required to set grinding schedules fitted to the number of available fermenting barrels and distilling pots.
In a few places in northern Nimba, such as along the Gwei Zolo valley in Zolowee, where there is concentration of steam mills and good sugar cane soils, growers may have some choice over which mill to use. But to what extent people growing cane on somebody else's land are obliged to use the landowner's mill needs to be investigated. In many other places, cane growers are essentially tied to one mill, which can add a degree of social complexity in terms of negotiating grinding slots and terms of use. It can also have far more serious consequences if the mill breaks down for an extended period. This was found to be the case in two smalls settlements, Yolowee and Gbein (between Bonlah and Beytonwee) where both their mills had been broken since 2012 and as a consequence nobody had been able to profit from their cane farms since then. Getting spare parts, and in some cases someone with the necessary skills in such remote towns, sometimes lacking phone coverage, is a real challenge, and for some older equipment almost impossible. Any uncertainty about mill repair time frames has knock-on effects on cane farm management decisions and after a certain time, people may be forced to abandon their farms as seemed to be the case in Yolowee. Sugar cane takes a certain time to reach maturity and this can have important implications for the re-starting of operations and the period it takes for repair expenses to be recovered.
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4.3 Growing Sugar Cane
Smallholder sugar cane production has long been off the radar in terms of research16 and extension in Liberia. Some general descriptions of farming methods have been included in some of the more detailed farming studies, e.g. van Santen, (1972), Frankenberger et al. (1985) and Westphal et al. (1987), but details of what appears to be a range of sugar cane farming styles are missing. What is attempted here is a very cursory and preliminary overview of some features of it in northern Nimba.
Specialisation in sugar cane farming is currently limited and though this is perhaps characteristic of the Camp 4 farmers at Gonokollie, at least in the past, it might exist to some degree in the longer established centres of productions such as Zolowee. Most cane farmers are therefore growing it along with a variety of other crops and their particular style of cane farming will reflect where they put their labour emphasis. Sugar cane can be quite a flexible crop which can be fitted around other crop schedules, though where it is planted and what varieties are important. In suitable upland soils, it can be grown with or after the upland rice and its associated crops. In river side alluvial soils, cane plantings are denser though a variety of inter crops can also be grown. Under brushing and weeding during establishment of the cane are important labour demands. After the first harvest, this becomes negligible for the subsequent ratoon crops. Yields decline with each ratoon harvest but the factors that shape farmers definitions of acceptable yield thresholds below which they will replant, need to be examined. Some farmers talked about continuous cropping for ten years or more, others less. Undoubtedly some soils and varieties permit acceptable yields longer than others, and in this regard alluvial soils are said to permit longer cropping, but where individual farmers set their limits, and what influences these decisions is likely to be variable.
A number of different cane varieties are grown in northern Nimba and one of the most important differences being the time to harvest, with some taking as little as 6-7 months and others a year. Such variation clearly adds to the flexibility of sugar cane strategies but varieties also exhibit a range of other appreciated traits. A brief discussion with a mill owner at Zolowee, revealed that they grow six varieties within the vicinity of his mill, five of which are shown in Figure 4—the well known 'Chinese' variety was the sixth one. A very interesting feature he noted given the aforementioned production constraints is that some are known to dry out much quicker than others. Among the varieties he used, Gbagandi (C) was said to take 2-3 weeks to dry out whereas Kah Zulu (E) needs to be ground very quickly as it does so in only two days. Different varieties are apparently grown together in the same field and also processed together as there is a need for a mixture between the more sugary and more watery ones. To what extent these characteristics determine selective harvesting techniques remains to be found out. Another noted trait of certain cane varieties is their resistance to the most frequently cited pest of this crop, the cane rat.
New cane varieties can be acquired when helping other people harvest and taking the 'tap' (the top 2 or 3 foot of the cane) for planting. They can also apparently be bought. To what extent there is much varietal change is not known, but there clearly is some. The mill owner whose canes are shown in Figure 4 said he had only acquired Gbagandi (C) in the last 7-8 years and another owner at Gbapa mentioned a Gbarnga-lée17 variety, which may be the same, that was acquired from Zolowee. Varietal preferences can also change and an older cane farmer talked of an American variety they used to use in the 1960s that gave plenty of juice. Quite why it went out of favour is not known but one story was that as it is so popular to chew (it is still grown for this purpose), crop theft risks are increased. In the total absence of any support to smallholder sugar cane farmers in Liberia, detailed examination of their varietal selection criteria and how they access new material would present a useful starting point to consider whether any of the spectacular yield increases obtained elsewhere in the world through improved varieties, albeit for sugar, could be applicable.
16 Von Gnielinski (1968) mentions some sugar cane experiments conducted by the Taiwanese at the Gbedin rice project north of Ganta. These, and probably any others so far conducted in Liberia, were however geared towards industrial sugar production. 17 The name literally means "Gbarnga woman" apparently because it is tall like the Kpelle woman there.
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Figure 4: Five Sugar Cane Varieties at Zolowee Key: A: Gbahwey, B: Kah, C: Gbagandi, D: Point 4 & E: Kah Zulo. Pen length = 145 mm
Westphal et al (1987) found in their survey work in Nimba county that most cane growers hire labour for harvesting but note that this seemed difficult at times because it is unpleasant work. This aspect of production was not investigated but is probably common. Producers with experience presumably develop a good ability to judge how much cane needs to be cut for the available number of drums for the beer. A range of other factors will enter into the price fixing discussions beyond the area to be cut, such as whether haulage to the mill is included and the quality of any accompanying food and refreshments. At both Sey Geh and Gonokollie a charge of 1,500 LD was reported, but in the former this was for 10 'boys' and excluded haulage, whereas the latter involved half this number of workers but included hauling the cane. Standardising these type of labour charges in order to calculate overall cane production costs is virtually impossible but more research is certainly needed to determine the extent to which farm labour availability and costs constrain production.
4.4 Cane Juice Marketing
Cane juice is sold in a variety of ways and has the advantages of a good value to weight ratio and storability. With production concentrated at the mills, one method is for buyers to buy directly, but to what extent this is done by the traders who specialise in this product is not clear. These traders appear to have to be rather mobile in their search for profits which are made predominantly in cross- border trade. Periodic markets, particularly the Saturday market at Sanniquellie, are perhaps preferable because sellers then have a weaker bargaining position. During fieldwork, Côte d'Ivoire seemed to be the major destination which resulted in some interesting movements. At the cane juice section of the Sanniquellie market it was easy to find traders living along the Ivorian border coming to buy. Though there is apparently a lot of production in their area, the proximity of the cross-border demand means that producers set their prices accordingly. One such trader from Duoplay, 6 km from the border, was looking to buy at 300 LD per gallon in Sanniquellie compared to the going rate of 400
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LD back home. At Dulay cane juice produced in Geipa, 12 km form the border, was said to be too expensive so traders were buying from Sanniquellie and even behind it at a town right on the Guinea border.
Apart from transport costs, selling cane juice over the border involves paying what are in all likelihood unofficial levies from the police, gendarmes or customs officers. A range of prices for these were given, which may reflect opportunities to negotiate and/or exchange rate fluctuations. On the Ivorian side, the figures cited were in the 75-105 LD range, with the size of the container (20 or 30 litre) sometimes said to be a factor, but sometimes not. For the Guinean side, the range cited was bigger (20 to 100 LD) for every 20 litre container (5 gallons). To compensate for these costs, at least on cane juice heading to Guinea, it is apparently diluted, presumably on arrival.
One mill operator in Gbapa reported sending 15 tins (75 gallons) of cane juice to his sister in Monrovia every month where she sells it on in various measures. He claimed to be getting 600 LD per gallon which is higher than the highest price given for the Ivorian market (575 LD). Not everyone however has such good contacts in Monrovia and investigations at Gobachop suggest that such a price18 would not be available via this route, especially once transport costs are taken into consideration. Another dissuading factor for selling via Gobachop are the price differences given according to alcohol content. Though producers do discriminate between different strength fractions at distillation, cane juice is not sold accordingly and in any case hygrometers are not widely available. In Gobachop a gallon of 55º proof cane juice was said to be bought for 450 LD for re-sale at 650 LD, whereas un-tested 'mixed' gallons are bought at less than 300 LD.
Frankenberger et al (1985: 52) reported that the marketing of cane juice was restricted by government regulations to licensed traders, shops and bar owners. Whether these regulations are still in force today is not known but trade at Sanniquellie and Zuolay markets was certainly not hidden. It was claimed at Gobachop that there is a Finance Ministry regulation that cane juice cannot be sold at less than 40º. These issues require further examination.
4.5 Outlook
The large amount of private investment going into sugar cane production and cane juice processing in northern Nimba strongly suggests that they are considered profitable activities. There is certainly potential for increasing current output both at the farm and processing levels. There is also a demand to finance new mills and facilitating AfriLand First Bank to lend in the area would undoubtedly be welcomed by those lacking the necessary start-up capital. Because of the nature of the final product, even small remote towns such as Bentol could be enabled to produce: settlements of this size certainly do and have produced cane juice in the past (e.g. Gbein and Yolowee). However, it would be important to make sure that maintenance and repair procedures form part of any loan package. Some guidance on best practices in mill operation could also be incorporated, especially for first-time operators and those whose only experience is with handmills. AfriLand First Bank's terms for a $15,000 loan set up a steam mill in Bomi (which seems an unnecessarily large sum) was a one year grace period in which only the interest is paid (during which time the factory and cane fields can be established) then a two year repayment period. Whether these conditions would find favour in northern Nimba, and what alternatives are possible, remains to be seen.
To what extent support for sugar cane farming will convert into increasing specialisation in this crop and an associated reduction in shifting agriculture is hard to predict. Cane juice prices fluctuate in northern Nimba in the range of about 300 to 400 LD a gallon. Though some of this is driven by seasonal production patterns, with generally more produced in the dry season, cross-border factors are also important. These factors need to be better understood because increasing production in the area could ultimately saturate the market. One option is to consider new marketing possibilities.
18 Unfortunately the Liberian Market Information System (LMIS) has stopped publishing monthly data on cane juice prices around the country since April 2011. Data available from September 2009 to November 2010 indicate that prices at Saclepea (Nimba) were higher than at Red Light or Gbarnga in 8 out 12 periods covered presumably because of cross-border demand.
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There is a rather common misconception that the large range of bottled spirits produced by the big 'distilleries19' in Monrovia are based on cane juice. Enquiries at two of these, RITCO and NICOM, revealed this to be incorrect as they both rely on imported ethanol. This currently comes from Europe, but up until the political crisis in 2002, RITCO at least was buying over the border from SODIALCI (La Société de Distillation d'Alcool en Côte d'Ivoire) in Bouaké. Cane juice is apparently too pungent and flavoursome to be easily blended, though NICOM was forced to use it during Operation Octopus in 1992 when it was impossible to get imports through the Freeport. Though cane juice could be refined to become suitable for this application, because it is made at such a small scale it is very unlikely to be competitive with industrial scale operations such as SODIALCI, which is slowly re-starting operations.
Probably the best mid to long term opportunities to increase value for cane juice producers are in terms of marketing the product's unique artisanal fabrication methods to exploit more lucrative markets. To be formally exported, to the region or beyond, it would presumably need to be subject to quality controls. It may also need to be bottled which could potentially be handled by some form of bottling co-operative and in this regard there is probably much to be learnt from the wine industry.
A final word on cane juice needs to be made concerning ethical issues. Despite many Liberians seeing the economic advantages of producing sugar cane for this end it has remained virtually untouched by NGOs working on rural poverty alleviation. This is presumably because of the connection between the end product and the social ills that can come from excessive alcohol consumption. There are a range of views on this subject from temperance to liberalism and some reflection on their various arguments is probably advisable.
19 As these companies do not actually produce alcohol they should more correctly be called blenders but this is what they call themselves.
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Biodiversity Conservation Programme, 2011-2015 Investigations into Continuous Cropping Opportunities in Northern Nimba
5. Plantain-Banana Value Chains
5.1 Introduction
The classification of the cultivated Musaceae is complicated but plantains form a distinct group with characteristics such as orange-yellow colour of both the compound tepal in the flowers and in the ripe pulp as well as slender, angular to pointed fruits which are unpalatable when raw (Swennen, 1990). In northern Nimba one variety was encountered that was said to be eaten both raw and cooked which would put it outside this narrow definition. Conformity to morphological characteristics of true plantains was not investigated so the term plantain will be used here to refer simply to all plantain-bananas which are cooked but not sweet, which is broader than the expert definition.
Plantain has become more important in urban Liberian diets, probably since the 1990s20, but what lies behind this is not clear. One explanation is that Liberian refugees experienced exposure to new preparations in other West African countries (MoA, 2007a: 30). However, there has been a general trend towards increased production both in neighbouring countries (Guinea, Cisse & Condé, 1999 and Côte d'Ivoire, Adopeo et al. 1999) as well as across the whole plantain belt of West and Central Africa (Côte et al. 2010). Plantain has not become cheaper relative to other starches such as cassava so presumably its increasing production is not as a result of replacement. Perhaps the niche it occupies in Liberia as a popular street-food is growing, which could be down to increasing urbanisation and/or real changes in eating habits.
5.2 Growing Plantain
Plantain is a flexible crop typically found in four settings in northern Nimba: (1) As a residual inter-crop in upland rice farms; (2) As an inter-crop in tree-crop plantations; (3) In back yard gardens around settlements; or (4) In plantain 'farms' of almost pure stands.
In some newly cleared upland farms, suckers having been cut and transported from plants on old farms or around the settlement, are buried in the field, often around the kitchen. Since the cropping cycle is about 12 months or more depending on the variety, these will not be harvestable until after the rice by which time the farm has normally been abandoned. However, they will be ready in the next hungry season and for some households they may have an important nutritional role at this time of year.
Plantain can be grown to provide shade for young coffee and cocoa seedlings and with these crops they may persist for several years after they reach maturity, sometimes filling in the gaps where trees have failed. However, when planted with rubber and makinto oil palms, they become shaded out when the trees start to mature.
Around settlements where the soil is enriched by household refuse, plantains and bananas grow well. The accumulation of partially burnt organic refuse such as the by-products of oil palm production as well as charred wood from fires, form a bio-char that help create nutrient rich dark soils around settlements that persist long after they cease to be inhabited (Leach et al. 2012). Thus old town spots that dot the northern Nimba landscape are also good places for growing plantains, though ultimately all these areas are relatively constrained in size and offer limited potential for expansion. In other parts of the country, old charcoal production spots can sometimes be seen with a few plantains benefiting from their bio-char properties and this may also occur in northern Nimba.
20 This approximate start date, cited in Yantuo, finds some justification in the fact the Westphal et al's baseline study in Nimba (1987) makes very short mention of this crop, yet include in their survey two towns, Bonglay and Behwallay that fall within a zone that was identified over 20 years later as being characterised by the importance of this crop (FEWSNET, 2011).
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A favourite location for growing almost pure stands of plantain reported in my 2008 agriculture study around Tokadeh21 and again during this one, is on the slopes of local mountains such as Bele, Yuelliton, Detton and Gangara. These invariably start out as rice farms which are gradually planted with suckers, sometimes over several years, and often associated with some pepper and bitterballs. Why these sites are preferred is not entirely clear and though edaphic reasons are obviously important and these areas may be especially rich either naturally and/or through long fallows, other factors such as micro-climatic or tenure reasons may also play a role. A notable downside of making plantain farms in these locations, apart from land use restrictions through mining and community forests, is their long distance to the nearest road.
One rather unique plantain farm was encountered at Gbapa, where a young enterprising farmer was putting into practice knowledge he had acquired when living in Guinea to specialise in this crop. Not only were his two farms not on a hill and instead occupied flat riverside land on black alluvial soils that are also suitable for sugar cane, they cover in total around 7-8 ha which is much larger than any other plantain farms in the area. With a large number of mature plants on staggered growth cycles, he is better able to schedule his harvesting activities. His particular aim is to increase production in the rainy season when prices are higher because of a combination of general labour diversion to rice farms, home consumption and poor road conditions.
A number of different varieties of plantain are grown in northern Nimba. Plantains can show wide morphological variability but are generally classified into four groups on the basis of their inflorescence types: French, French Horn, False Horn, and Horn plantains (Swennen et al. 1995). No studies on plantain diversity are thought to have been made in Liberia but just over the border in Guinée Forestière, Cisse & Condé (1999) report 12 varieties within the French and Horn categories. Local taxonomies can be useful to understand the diversity of varieties and their different attributes but these need to be coupled to morphological characteristics to avoid problems with synonyms within and between languages. A rapid list of seven Dan names for different plantains was generated with an impromptu group of farmers at Yantuo, whereas four Mano names, plus one English name were elicited with the aforementioned plantain specialist at Gbapa. Of the four varieties seen on the farm at Gbapa, two appeared to be in the French category (one of them actually being called French) and the other two were probably Horn types.
Plantain production is particularly susceptible to diseases and pests. Problems with worms and ants were especially mentioned in northern Nimba. In both Côte d'Ivoire (Traoré et al. 2009) and Guinée Forestière (Cisse & Condé, 1999), weevils, particularly the banana weevil (charançon noir, Cosmopolites sordidus) are a problem, causing infestation in rhizomes which are easily spread in planting suckers. Figure 5 shows damage which could be blamed on a worm or ants, but is probably this weevil—ants commonly enter the cavity created by them (Traoré et al. 2009). Nematodes in the roots are also a common problem in neighbouring countries and are perhaps also captured under the term worms, though one of the symptoms of this problem, early toppling due to weakened roots, may not be so easy to link conceptually. Foliar diseases were not mentioned though I suspected this at a lowland plantation in Gbapa and the existence of the Sigatoka diseases (cercosporiose jaune and cercosporiose noire) caused by Mycosphaerella fungi needs to be investigated as they are an especially big problem in this category which can cause yield declines of between 50-100% (Pefoura et al. 1996). Interestingly, altitude has been observed to be an important factor determining which of these diseases is a problem in Côte d'Ivoire (ibid.) and is something to look at more closely in northern Nimba given the different altitudes plantains are grown at.
21 Available at: http://www.arcelormittal.com/liberia/documents/AMNimbaEnv-BaselineVol4.pdf
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Figure 5: Pest Damage in a Plantain Sucker at Gbapa
5.3 Marketing Plantain
Plantains destined to be sold are cut green on the bunch. How long it then takes for them to become unsaleable is unclear as plantains were seen being sold at Gobachop in a range of states from green to over-ripe. Factors such as handling damage as well as transport or storage alongside riper fruits can all accelerate maturation (Simplice et al. 2005). To what extent post-harvest life expectations influence decisions about when to cut bunches is unknown, but once cut, the first mile transport from the farm to the nearest road is an important pre-occupation either for the producer or in some cases the farm gate buyer.
Without the physical strength or family labour to help, first mile transport costs for plantain are relatively high compared to plantain prices. Prices for individual plantain bunches vary widely depending on their size and the number and form of their fruits as well as the time of year, but for loading onto a vehicle they are generally priced as a 'count' (sometimes alternatively called a 'head') of three sometimes even four bunches. Head-loading one count from Mount Bele to Zolowee was said to cost in the region of 75-100 LD. It may then be possible to sell it for somewhere in the range of 300-450 LD. Curiously buying prices for a count are noticeably lower (150 LD) on the east side of the Nimba ridge where quite a few car motors operate on regular schedules. Farm gate buyers working here though reported having to pay up to 100 LD to head load a count over an hours walk to the nearest roadside pick-up point, which seems comparable to Zolowee.
Vehicle transport costs per mile are certainly much cheaper than head loading. To transport one count of plantain from Sanniquellie to Gobachop in large trucks costs around 150 LD in the dry season and 200 LD in the rains. The smaller car motors operating east of the Nimba ridge were charging 200 LD per count and though this used to go up to 250 LD in the rains, it was said that a deal had been struck
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with one of the fleet owners in January 2013 to keep it at the lower price year round. Transport to Monrovia in the rainy season can be very difficult and many people trying to sell plantain and other fresh products to this market have stories about how their loads have been spoilt to the point of being unsaleable through major delays.
The full range of plantain transport options in northern Nimba was not investigated but there does seem to be some use of transport cars to Sanniquellie market even where there are local car motor pick-up options as found east of the Nimba ridge or local buyers who organise their own transport as found at Gbapa. Though sale prices may be better in Sanniquellie, these need to be weighed against the costs (and effort) of getting the plantain there. With one count said to cost 150 LD to transport from Zolowee by car or 200 LD by motorbike, it is difficult to see what the benefit is, but more research is needed. It could be that supply for potential local sales out strips demand obliging some people to go to Sanniquellie market which they may have other reasons to visit anyway.
Though there seems to be a significant disparity between the prices plantain producers get in northern Nimba and those obtained in Gobachop, not all means of dealing between the two are equally profitable. Observations of the sales there of one of the market women from Gbapa show that she was getting 250-500 LD per bunch. Having bought a count of three at home somewhere in the 350- 500 LD range and paid 200 LD to get it there, this would suggest a profit margin in the 50 to 950 LD range per count. Factoring in her additional costs (local transport to her warehouse in Gbapa, her personnel transport costs to Monrovia and back, Gobachop ground fees and license) would however bring her margins down much more, though these are obviously diluted by the volumes she deals in (40-60 counts a week). In comparison, discussions with three Say-Pay plantain traders at Gobachop indicate that though they have different arrangements with their customers they were only making about 35 LD per bunch they sold without taking into account their LMA fees.
The plantain buyers in the earlier mentioned Goagurtuo Gobachop Market Association seem to be making especially interesting margins because of the rather low prices producers are accepting on that side of the ridge. With a count bought at 150 LD they are reportedly getting about 500 LD for this from their Say-Pay customers after transport to Gobachop has been deducted, though this must vary. From this 350 LD profit they may have to deduct up to 100 LD for head loading fees, but that still leaves a profit of about 80 LD a bunch, which is more than what the farmer is getting. Though they are having to front their purchase costs before receiving the sales money from Monrovia plus the transport risks, this arrangement needs to be investigated further to see if a better deal for farmers is possible.
The final Gobachop trading arrangement to consider is the case of the specialist plantain farmer at Gbapa. Though he was coy about revealing his profits, his case is useful in order to consider what operating scale is required to reduce the intermediaries between the plantain producer and Gobachop. On a monthly basis he travels down with about 100 counts of plantain, mixed with some bananas as well as a few sacks of loose fruit that have fallen off. He is fortunate that his farms are only about 1 km from the main Yekepa road, though there is a wide river to traverse. To harvest his produce and get it to the nearest roadside pick-up point, he has to hire labour which he admitted wasn't easy. The price he pays for this is not known, but he seems to be able to negotiate better per count transport rates than either the car motors to the east of the ridge or the trucks at Sanniquellie. He does however have to pay his still considerable transport fees (up to 10,000 LD) before he has seen any return on his harvest, which demands a degree of liquidity beyond most farmers. At Gobachop he operates through a customer woman who is able to arrange overnight storage facilities while she sells his goods. Though he has to wait several days to collect his money, the earlier mentioned prices would suggest he comes away with a tidy sum. Whilst he obviously has unknown production costs to offset against this, again mainly additional labour, the risk aspects of his enterprise should not be forgotten, and these are not only on the farm side. Three times in 2012 he lost his whole load in transit due to delays on the road.
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5.4 Outlook
The paving of the road from Yekepa to Ganta and improvements onwards to Monrovia could confer a significant market access advantage to the Sanniquellie-Yekepa area. Currently an area of eastern Nimba County around Buu‐Yao, Kparblee and Quilla Districts is a significant source of plantain to Monrovia. Indeed a national livelihood zoning exercise identified 11 clans in these districts as distinctive on the basis of their reliance on intensive plantain production (FEWS NET 2011). Though this area's advantage is attributed to potash and phosphorous rich soils it is also recognised as having a poor road linkage to the capital via Tappita and Saclepea (ibid.).
Intensive plantain cultivation is currently practised in only a few locations in northern Nimba. There appears to have been limited extension work on this crop in Liberia but there is a body of applicable knowledge as well as improved, disease resistant varieties in both Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea to consider tapping in to. Another option is CARBAP22(Centre Africain de Recherches sur Bananiers et Plantains), which coordinates research, training and development of this crop on the continent. In recent years it has provided training to about 500 people annually from small-holder organizations, co-operatives and enterprises to spread innovating technologies (Tomekpe et al. 2011). These techniques include a promising effective and simple method to ensure sucker sanitation through rapid boiling water treatment (Coyne et al. 2010 and Hauser et al. 2010)
Improvements to major roads and the diffusion of new production techniques and varieties on their own, will not be enough to encourage farmers in northern Nimba to switch from shifting rice cultivation to continuous cropping of plantain. The availability of suitable soils as well as the necessary tenure conditions are important pre-conditions that are impossible to reconfigure so all farmers can, if they are inclined, engage in intensive production. First mile transport constraints will need to be looked at for the more distant promising sites, but in the short-term, intensive production is more likely to be taken up in areas closer to Sanniquellie and the soon to be paved highway to Yekepa. In terms of the study towns, the current improvements being made to the Vanyampa road, coupled to it's location within the Gba Community Forest, would make it an ideal candidate, especially as they reportedly have suitable black soils.
Beyond looking at overcoming first mile constraints, more research is needed to better understand how plantain farmers can be encouraged to specialise in this crop by getting a greater share of the prices obtained in Monrovia. Producer associations and the potential role of credit for operations such as vehicle hire are avenues to explore. Another area worth looking at are the quality criteria of people transforming plantains before final consumption. Detailed research in urban Cameroon on this has revealed how quality preferences differ according to the specific dishes prepared and that different prices are paid for certain qualities (Durey et al. 1999). Though Liberia does not have the same plantain culinary traditions as Cameroon, observations at Gobachop of the maturity state and quality of bought plantain, and the different prices paid, suggest that there may be some merit in exploring this topic in more detail. If a premium exists for a certain shape and/or degree of maturity, could special consignments be organised to meet these criteria at the point of production? Could such an approach even allow for Gobachop to be circumvented? There would certainly seem to options to consider in this area.
22 http://www.carbapafrica.org/
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6. CONSIDERATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1 Closing Thoughts
Land use planning in northern Nimba with a view to ensuring the long term future of the four forest blocks is a big challenge. A complex of factors ranging in scale from the local to the global interact to influence individual land use decisions. AML's environmental offset policies however can only really work at the local level and it has to be accepted that some of these efforts could be undermined by higher order factors, for example a long term increase in the price of imported rice or much closer to home, policy shifts just over the two international borders. Whilst some future changes are very unpredictable, others can be expected to some extent, though not necessarily with any precision, for example, currency fluctuations and increasing education levels.
Something of a historical perspective has purposefully been adopted in this report in order to stress the need to better grasp, or at least acknowledge the significance of, the dynamic social and economic processes shaping local land use patterns. To date, the few socio-economic studies conducted in northern Nimba have tended to be rather static, ranging from the old fashioned descriptive ethnography of Kjell Zetterström to the snap shot surveys of the recent ESIA's. These unfortunately tell us very little, if anything about the underlying change trends in local societies. In my 2008 study around Tokadeh, I emphasised the critical significance of farm labour and land tenure in shaping where people do what on the land. Understanding change trends in relation to farm labour is critical for thinking about local land use, for example how will increasing education rates influence preferences between farm and non-farm jobs? Could this lead to a more commercially orientated agricultural focus? Five years on from my study, the price of hired farm labour has doubled (from 75 LD to 150 LD, though it is always negotiable) and anecdotal evidence from Zolowee and Gbapa, the two places with the most daily hire opportunities with AML's contractors, suggest that it may be more expensive or simply much harder to find. Clearly these type of issues need to be factored in to tailoring land use incentives for different areas of northern Nimba.
One of the main threats to the four forest blocks is generally considered to be an expansion of shifting agriculture due to an increasing population. However the finer details of how this is occurring on the edges of these forests (where precisely and at what rates), who is involved and what is behind their farming in these areas has not yet been elucidated. In short the invisible (to outsiders) web of tenure that shapes land use patterns needs to be elucidated and it is strongly recommended that this is done through a participatory land use planning approach. The recently announced land tenure policy proposals will strengthen community land ownership rights but also put an emphasis on working out boundaries. Many inter-community boundaries in northern Nimba remain fuzzy but there is also a need to consider inter-community boundaries between quarters and families. Enabling local communities to do this needs to be part and parcel of land use planning in the area. It will also help immensely in tailoring land use incentive programmes to those farmers using, or looking to use, land on the margins of the four forest blocks.
This report has singled out two rather unique perennial crops that have the potential to be continually cropped profitably, and already are to some extent. They do not offer a panacea and nor are they mutually exclusive (indeed they can be, and sometimes are grown together) or incompatible with other crops or indeed other jobs. They both have the advantage of short periods to first harvest as well as harvest flexibility. As such they have some characteristics that fit well with the dynamic setting. On the other hand they can also be seen as little known crops (in terms of national extension knowledge) in a poorly understood, but certainly complex, social setting. To build on the initial findings of this report it is therefore proposed to adopt an action-research type approach going forward in which there is constant learning and feedback in assessing what works or doesn't with which people under what circumstances.
6.2 Summary of Recommendations
Two detailed multi-part surveys are recommended, one for each crop. Some of the key research areas that should be covered are outlined below:
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Sugar Cane Survey Cane factory management covering topics such as maintenance cycles and grinding and distilling scheduling with a view towards developing best practise guidelines for loan recipients. This would also provide important information about potential for new marketing channels and needs for production level controls. An examination of local cane varieties and how they are acquired and what characteristics are appreciated. A comparative look at varieties in use elsewhere, for example around the lower St Paul river, Liberia's oldest cane growing region, with a view to possible varietal exchanges. Results from this could inform any decision on the advantages of looking outside Liberia to specialist cane breeding centres in for example Barbados or South Africa. A detailed look at cane growing covering everything from land access to labour inputs and harvesting and replanting decisions. Follow-up on certain aspects of cane juice marketing, such as verification of reported regulations and whether the LMIS continues to collect cane juice price data or if other sources exist.
Plantain Survey A survey of plantain farms. This should cover location preferences, especially as regard soils and altitude, varieties grown, their different characteristics and how they were acquired, planting and harvesting schedules and pest and disease knowledge and management practises. A detailed examination of car motor/Gobachop buying associations to determine to what extent local producers (not just of plantains) might be losing out to them. An examination of plantain producer associations in eastern Nimba county and perhaps even in Guinea. Particular attention should be given to how they manage transport issues. Depending on the results of the two topics above, it might be useful to conduct a survey of plantain buyers in Monrovia similar to Durey et al. (1999) to explore opportunities for sending higher quality batches direct to buyers.
In terms of practical recommendations to start supporting sugar cane and plantain production, organising for AfriLand First Bank to meet people from the 16 study towns interested in credit opportunities for steam mills could be initiated in the short-term. Though this would be getting ahead of the findings from the proposed survey, there is probably enough lead in time in the credit provision to equipment purchase process to accommodate this. For plantain producers, though it is possible to immediately start looking for extension advice and training opportunities with CARBAP or the relevant programmes of IRAG at Kindia (Guinea) or CNRA at Azaguié (Côte d'Ivoire), it is advisable to approach them once a better understanding of current production practises has been gained from the survey.
One other related recommendation is to initiate participatory land use planning around the four forest blocks, not only to improve understanding of who and why people are farming on the forest edges, which could help targeting of continuous cropping support measures, but also to anticipate and embrace changes likely to occur from the recent Land Rights Policy.
Probably the most significant agricultural alternative to the perennial crops relates to developing a swamp rice support programme as another continuous cropping initiative parallel to the perennial crop options examined here. Depending on how much support can be given to land use research and development, the other recommendations made in the appendix, for example around tree crops and crop pests, could also be given consideration.
Several recommendations are also made in a separate review of the agricultural guidance recommendations given in the ArcelorMittal Phase 2 Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (the ESIA was published in March 2013 but the recommendations are under review and not yet published by ArcelorMittal).
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