EnDev Liberia cocoa sector activities Strategic directions Friederike Feuchte and EnDev Liberia Team June 2016 Strategic directions of EnDEv activities for cocoa farmers in rural Liberia Contents Tables and Figures ............................................................................................................................... 4 Glossary and abbreviations ................................................................................................................. 5 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................. 6 1. Strategic directions for Cocoa farming support .............................................................................. 7 Principles, objectives and guiding strategies ...................................................................................... 8 Project overview ................................................................................................................................ 10 Theory of change ............................................................................................................................... 11 2. Context and stakeholders: cocoa farming in Liberia..................................................................... 12 Areas of operation: Lofa and Nimba ................................................................................................. 12 Lofa county .................................................................................................................................... 13 Nimba county ................................................................................................................................ 13 Cocoa production, processing and grading ....................................................................................... 14 Cocoa production in Liberia .............................................................................................................. 16 Stakeholders ...................................................................................................................................... 17 Farmers and cooperatives ............................................................................................................ 17 Cocoa exporters ............................................................................................................................ 18 Non-governmental organizations ................................................................................................. 19 Government agencies and international bodies........................................................................... 19 Trends and environment for cocoa farming ..................................................................................... 20 3 EnDev cocoa sector activities ........................................................................................................ 22 Establishing best practices for solar dryers ....................................................................................... 22 Developing a standard solar dryer - table model ......................................................................... 22 Further adapting the standard table model ................................................................................. 26 Further cocoa dryer model comparison ....................................................................................... 27 Increasing access to solar dryers ....................................................................................................... 27 Support for building dryers in Lofa ............................................................................................... 27 Training & support to build dryers in Nimba ................................................................................ 28 Solar dryer repair .......................................................................................................................... 29 2 Strategic directions of EnDEv activities for cocoa farmers in rural Liberia Cocoa dryer maintenance system and training ............................................................................ 31 Supporting certification and sustainable development .................................................................... 31 Certification ................................................................................................................................... 32 Sustainable Development ............................................................................................................. 32 4. Lessons learned ............................................................................................................................. 33 Solar dryers are beneficial for farmers .............................................................................................. 33 More income ................................................................................................................................. 33 Less drying time ............................................................................................................................ 34 Good working conditions for better quality cocoa ....................................................................... 34 Collaboration, monitoring and encouragement is necessary ........................................................... 35 Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats ........................................................................... 36 5. Next steps on way forward ........................................................................................................... 38 Collaborate towards more dryer constructions ................................................................................ 38 Promote market structures for thermoplastic .................................................................................. 39 Gather and compile best practices for drying and monitoring ......................................................... 39 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 41 Some basic principles of drying cocoa .............................................................................................. 41 Cocoa dryer models ........................................................................................................................... 44 3 Strategic directions of EnDEv activities for cocoa farmers in rural Liberia Tables and Figures No Table page 1 EnDev Goals for each 100000 EUR in the program (across all 24 countries) 8 2 Strategic objectives, indicators and guiding strategies for cocoa sector activities 10 3 Line of action, hypotheses, principles actors and activities to achieve EnDev 11 objectives in the cocoa sector 4 Cocoa defects that reduce the quality and thus should be prevented. 15 5 “STEEP analysis” – social, technological, economical, ecological and political aspects 21 of EnDev cocoa poject, rural Liberia and the general environment 6 Four types of dryers that were explored, considered or tested 23 7 The four table dryer versions that were tested and compared in Lofa 24 8 The solar dryer as tested and promoted by EnDev in Lofa 25 9 Key characteristics of the EnDev solar dryer table model 26 10 Adaptations of the table dryer size 26 11 Dryers and their condition in communities of subcooperatives in Foya district, Lofa 29 in 2015 12 SWOT analysis for EnDev Liberia cocoa sector activities 37 No Figure page 1 The “pentagon of variable geometry” (Source: Capacity Works) serves as reference system for evaluating and selecting strategic options in development work; the lines 9 represent how EnDev Liberia – cocoa sector developed from 2013 to2016. 2 Theory of Change for Cocoa farming support strategies 12 3 Liberian map with EnDev areas of operations in Lofa and Nimba circled in red 13 4 The cut test reveals quality of cocoa beans (source: GIZ/EnDev) 16 5 Stakeholder map for EnDev activities in the cocoa sector 17 6 Wakasseh farmer union in Nimba and their sub-unions 18 7 Example of the development of temperature, humidity and dew point during one 24 day of drying 8 Impressions of the solar dryer construction training in Nimba 28 9 Example of a dryer that has broken down 30 10 Power saw operator and community members prepare /transport wood for dryer 30 11 Talking with farmers about dryer maintenance 30 12 Shift in average sale price according to 41 interviewed farmers (Data source: Project 33 field Monitoring Report 2013) 13 Days used for drying before and when using the solar dryers (Data source: Project 34 field Monitoring Report 2013) 14 Farmer telling about his experiences 35 15 Distance between cocoa dryers and farms 35 4 Strategic directions of EnDEv activities for cocoa farmers in rural Liberia Glossary and abbreviations LAADCO Liberian Agriculture and asset development cooperative, a cocoa exporter in Liberia AVL African Venture Liberia (formerly Kingdom Venture Capital Funds) IFAD The International Fund for Agricultural Development MoA Ministry of Agriculture ICCO International Cocoa Organization LADA Liberia Agriculture Transformation Agenda BMZ Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development EnDev Energising Development GAP Good Agricultural Practices GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Development Cooperation) Ha Hectar (10,000 m² /2.45 acres) LD Liberian