Smallholder Agriculture Transformation and Agribusiness Revitalization Project (STAR-P)

closed

The development objective of the Smallholder Agriculture Transformation and Agribusiness Revitalization Project for Liberia is to increase agricultural productivity and commercialization of smallholder farmers for selected value chains in selected counties of Liberia. The project comprises of three components. The first component, institutional capacity building and strengthening the enabling environment for farmers, state, and nonstate actors aims to strengthen institutional capacity of farmer-based organizations (FBOs), key public agencies, and private sector service providers to enhance the delivery of priority services necessary to promote competitive commercial agriculture in Liberia. It consists of following sub-components: (i) strengthening market-oriented smallholder farmer groups for selected commodity value chains; (ii) institutional strengthening for selected government ministries, departments, and agencies; (iii) capacity building for selected private sector and non-state institutions; and (iv) strengthening the enabling environment, policy, regulations, and administrative procedures for agribusiness growth. The second component, enhancing productivity and competitiveness objective is to address key bottlenecks to smallholder farmers’ commercialization and their integration into competitive value chains by facilitating access to finance and to input and output markets. It consists of following sub-components: (i) investment support for productive linkages between smallholder farmers and agribusiness; (ii) support to agribusiness and business development service enterprises; and (iii) support to financial institutions. The third component, project management, monitoring and evaluation, citizens engagement, and contingency emergency will support the management of project activities and ensure: (i) efficient coordination and monitoring and evaluation (M and E) of project activities to ensure that they are implemented in line with project documents, (ii) stakeholder awareness and participation through timely communication of results and consistent citizen engagement, and (iii) a mechanism is in place to quickly respond to eligible emergencies. It consists of following sub-components: (i) efficient project management, M and E; (ii) effective communication and citizen engagement; and (iii) contingency emergency response.