Smallholder Agricultural Productivity Enhancement and Commercialization Project (SAPEC)

About the Project

In Liberia, 64% of the population –more than two million people– lives below the poverty line. The agriculture sector –  food and tree crops, fisheries, and livestock – accounts for 38.8% of the GDP, and 70% of the country’s population depends on agriculture for its livelihood. The sector is a significant contributor to the economy in terms of employment and foreign exchange earnings, and a primary determinant of nutrition, education, poverty reduction, and rural transformation. Women are major players, producing over 60% of agricultural products and constituting the majority of smallholder producers and the agricultural labor force. Approximately half of the population is either food insecure or highly vulnerable to food shortages due in part to low agricultural productivity that, in turn, is caused by structural impediments, inadequate policies, and prolonged conflicts that displaced farming communities, degraded transport and processing infrastructures, and diminished productive capacities such as assets and skilled personnel. 

GAFSP invested $46.5 million to enhance the income of smallholder farmers, particularly women, and youth, through sustainable land expansion and land improvement, increased market access, and strengthened institutional capacities. SAPEC aims to transform Liberia’s agriculture sector, which is dominated by traditional subsistence farming systems and is characterized by labor-intensive shifting cultivation and low technologies that result in low productivity. SAPEC also supports the Liberia Agriculture Transformation Agenda with targeted programs and action plans that raise agricultural productivity by delivering modern inputs and finance to farmers and agribusinesses. The project promotes the use of improved technologies for rice, cassava, and vegetables, such as climate change-resilient rice varieties and fertilizers; develops new irrigation and drainage systems in lowlands; rehabilitates feeder roads, storage facilities, and agro-processing equipment; addresses the acute shortage of skilled manpower for planning and supervision of sector development activities by providing post-graduate scholarships to master’s degree students in various agriculture-related disciplines in Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania; and promotes rural enterprises to generate employment, particularly for women, youth, and the physically challenged and especially in rice and cassava processing. Two CGIAR centers, Africa Rice Center in Côte d’Ivoire and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria, are key implementing partners for this project.