SADFONS Donation Eases Labor for AHWEHDE Farmers, Increase Income Through Cassava Processing Equipment

By Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh

Dougee, Grand Gedeh County – Grinding Cassava with her hands using the locally made grinder, Julie says took she and her young children several hours and days of hard labor.

Some days, their fingers got grinded as the blood would roll down into the cassava, but yet, even with the pains, they had no option, but to finish whatever bags or tubs full of cassava they had to process.

This way of grinding cassava prior to Julie’s farmers group-AHWEHDE Farmer Association receiving support from the Smallholder Agriculture Development Food and Nutrition Security (SADFON) was their only means of cassava processing.

“A lot has changed for us.” Julie Jearue, a mother of 6 said displaying how they used to grind the cassava using their hands.

Not a single member of AHWEHDE Farmer Association have not gotten a scar from this earlier painstaking efforts of processing cassava, they told ActionAid Liberia’s Team conducting the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) Impacts Assessment Review in Grand Gedeh County.

“Sometimes when I come from my cassava farm and bring two to three bags of cassava; I just take it to the machine and in 5 to 10 minutes the machine is done trending all,  but in the past, I and my children would be grinding for about a whole day or sometimes 2 days.”

ActionAid International, in partnership with the GAFSP through a signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ActionAid Liberia has been conducting series of assessments  the impacts review of the Smallholder Agriculture Development for Food and Nutrition Security (SADFONS)  across six counties in Liberia, (Grand Bassa, Rural Montserrado, Grand Gedeh, River Gee, Bomi, and Maryland Counties).

The impact review is being conducted in collaboration with civil society consortium, in 5 other countries including Liberia.

The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) established by the G20 leaders in 2009, officially rollout in April 2010 benefiting over 36 countries with a financial portfolio of $ 2.44 billion United States Dollars supporting 320 private and public sector projects in low-income countries.

These reviews focus on gathering lessons learned, documenting successes, as well as challenges and exploring opportunities to scale up sustainable agriculture and how the GAFSP projects are addressing the link of climate, nutrition, income generation, and gender within the agriculture and food systems.

In Dougee Town, the group said with the provision of a Cassava Grinding machine, Julie and members of their Farmer Association now take less time to grind and are now witnessing a sharp rise in their income and their young children are no more engaged into such risky and intensive labor.

Not only has Julie and her young children graduated from grinding cassava using their hands, but she said, she  is now witnessing an increase in her income. From grinding at least three to four bags of cassava, Julie says she earns up to $7,000 Liberian Dollars. As such, grinding three times within a week would mean earning her $21,000 Liberian Dollars.

In 2022, AHWEHDE Farmer Association was among several farming groups that began benefiting from  SADFONS project funded by the the Global Agriculture Food and Security Program (GAFSP).

As a farmer’s group in the Cassava Value chain, SADFON supported the Association in cultivating four hectares of land growing only cassava and provided the group the cassava grinding machine, the cassava slicer, and the compressor.

Other members of the group testified as saying that not only have these pieces of equipment helped in getting members aways from the several hours of hard labor grinding with their hands, but the cassava grinder has become a beacon of hope for other nearby towns and villages.

Habakkuk Quoie, a 55-year-old farmer and father of 6 said from the cassava, he is now financially capacitated to educated all his children, unlike in the past. He narrative how two of his 6 children have now completed high school as a result of the boost in their income.

“Because of the machine, we can now process more cassava. In fact, we have people who are not members of our group coming from the other towns who often bring their cassava for us to grind, and we do that, charge them to money to grind their cassava and that money is put into our saving, and from the cassava, two of my children have completed high school.”

This, Habakkuk said has also become extra source of income generation for the association, while at the same time inspiring them to grow more cassava on their private farms and backyard gardens thereby boosting their individuals’ revenues and hard labor.

“SADFON bought us the machines and they took us from the headship that our women were facing here by grinding fufu and cassava with their hands.”

Habakkuk reflected as saying how they and members of their town once traveled as far as neighboring Ivory Coast to purchase Gari and Fufu for consumption, but he said they no longer travel to Ivory Coast because their farmer association is now processing their cassava into gari, fufu, and even archikay which now being bought by nearby towns and villages.
“We used to go and buy Fufu from Ivory Coast before we eat here, but now, we are no more going to Ivory Coast, that’s why we happy for what SADFONS did for us.” Habakkuk explained.

Under the SADFON project, AHWEHDE Farmers Association say they received some awareness from the ministry of Agriculture team about the importance of cultivating backyard gardens, something admitted have increased their nutrition and healthy eating habit.

With their backyard gardens, members told the assessment team that it has provided them additional source of income apart from income they generated as an association from the group’s farm.

From their backyard gardens, members no longer purchase soup kind from the local market, and that they when harvest is not yet ready from the Association’s Farm members turn to their gardens where they feed and sell in to the local market thus boosting their income.

Despite all these game-changing and transformative journey of AHWEHDE Farmers Association, it has not been without challenges. They group expressed disappointment in the Ministry of Agriculture not meeting up with other key components and interventions the SADFONS project was to deliver on.

The Association’s chairperson and members named the lack of training from the Ministry of Agriculture on the usage of the three pieces of equipment SADFONS donated. To date, the group said they still struggle to operate the cassava slicing machine and compressor. As for the cassava grinder, they struggled and were able to learn it all by themselves without any formal training from the ministry.

The Ministry of Agriculture just brought the machines and left them here without providing any training on how to operate them.” Asid Amos Quiweah, chairperson of the association.

“When the machine arrived, the members had to contribute our own money to transport them from Zwedru  to Dougee.” Another member of the association narrated as saying.

The group also pointed out the lack of supervision and support system to maintain and regularly service the equipment, coupled with the lack of storage facility for their produce and the lack of market linkages as some of the pressing challenges they want SADFONS and MOA to address moving forward.

The Association have set news goals. Key among their goals the chairperson said they plan to increase the land space for their cassava cultivation including plans to cultivate vegetable, but they say that can only happen provided if the Ministry of Agriculture fulfills all the indicators the project was to deliver on under the SADFONS project.

According to the Association, the MOA did not provide AHWEHDE cassava sticks, and seedings among many other things.