Published: October 8, 2025
Monrovia – Over 20 potential farmers in communities near the Grebo-Krahn National Park (GKNP) are expected to receive a supply of planting materials, including 6000 plantain suckers and over 100k seedlings of hot pepper, in the coming months.
The supply of planting materials aligns with plans to empower local farmers to grow plantain and pepper in commercial quantities, thereby boosting the local economy of communities near protected areas (PAs). This effort is also aimed at enhancing food security and increasing the supply of locally produced commodities on the Liberian market.
Plantain is the third most widely consumed local staple in Liberia, after rice and cassava. On the other hand, pepper is the most commonly consumed spice in Liberia. However, both crops are only cultivated at the subsistence level in Grand Gedeh and Rivergee Counties, where PADEV is currently implementing components of a UNDP-supported project known as the Community-Based Forestry and Protected Area Management (CBFM) project.
The Swedish Embassy in Liberia funds the project, which aims to strengthen the management of community forests (CFs) and protected areas through improved governance of Community Forest Management Bodies (CFMBs), capacity building within the forest regulatory framework, and the promotion of sustainable livelihood incentives for forest-dependent communities.
To complement the farmers’ efforts, PADEV has procured and pre-positioned a consignment of farming tools to be distributed to selected farmers before the commencement of site preparation, aiding in the growth of their crops.
Additionally, PADEV has posted field extension staff in Konobo, Glio, and Twarbo Districts in Grand Gedeh, as well as in Sarbo, Putipo, and Gbeabo Districts in Rivergee Counties, to provide direct extension support to farmers. The extension services will broadly focus on strengthening farmers’ capacity to adopt the regenerative climate-smart/low-emission agriculture approach for the agriculture value chain activity and to improve their understanding of the magnitude of postharvest loss during crop production.
Looking ahead, PADEV’s long-term goal is to spread the concept of farming as a business (FaaB) by creating smallholders throughout the local forest areas and empowering them to grow crops in critical volumes, thereby reducing farmers’ reliance on protected forests for their livelihood.
In 2024, an estimated 450 people from forest fringe communities reached during the previous project raised over three million Liberian Dollars (L$3m) from income-driven enterprises and microfinance programs, such as Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLAs), as well as handicraft items, food crops, including hot peppers, local cowpeas, groundnuts, and corn.
As PADEV reengages with the communities, its primary focus is to work with individual farmers to improve their productive capacity and link them with sectoral partners, including the county and district agriculture coordinators, county authority, and the regional leadership of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) in the Southeast who will continue to monitor and provide guidance to the farmers when the project ends.
“This approach highlights the significance of our partnership and collaboration with local stakeholders and underpins our plans to devolve ownership and management responsibility of donor-funded projects to the local people”, Nobeh Jackson, Team Leader of PADEV, remarked at the close of a recent project inception meeting in Fish Town, Rivergee County.
In addition to the regenerative climate-smart/low-emission project, PADEV will continue to support VSLAs, forest governance activities, sustainable beekeeping, strategic communication, a cane rat pilot in Gbalawein, Sinoe County, and will explore the opportunity to support an enterprise for sustainable trade in non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in Weasayn, Rivercess County.
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