PRESS RELEASE

“The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) Distributes Improve Cocoa Seedlings to Smallholder Farmers in Nimba & Lofa Counties”

Monrovia, Liberia: MOA-PMU: 8/9/21: The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) with technical support from the Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI) has commenced the distribution of 5,647.675 improved cocoa seedlings to smallholder farmers in Nimba and Lofa counties. 

The distribution is being done through the MOA's Tree Crop Extension Projects 1 & 2 financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

About  5,299 smallholder cocoa farmers in Nimba County and 5,500 smallholder farmers in Lofa County will receive the seedlings.

The ongoing distribution of improved seedlings is part of the revitalization of cocoa farms to replace unproductive and dead cocoa trees with the improved variety. 

MOA's TCEP1&2 are meant to improve the household incomes and climate change resilience of 18,000 smallholder cocoa farmers in the two counties.