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By Allen P. Lablah, Sanniquellie City, Nimba County
As Liberia continues to confront persistent food insecurity and underdeveloped agricultural value chains, one enterprise in Nimba County is showing what locally driven agribusiness transformation can look like. The Rain Forest Agriculture Enterprise, headquartered in Vayenglay Town, Soe Clan, Nimba County Electoral District- 4, has emerged as a growing force in rural development—linking smallholder farmers to markets, adding value through agro-processing, and delivering tangible social and economic returns.
Now bolstered by a US$60,000 grant from the Smallholder Agricultural Transformation and Agribusiness Revitalization Project (STAR-P), the organization is scaling up its kernel oil processing operations, addressing a critical gap in Liberia’s oil palm value chain. STAR-P, a Government of Liberia initiative supported by the World Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), aims to catalyze agribusiness growth through targeted investments in rural producers, processors, and cooperatives.
Rain Forest Agriculture Enterprise began humbly in 1992 with backyard gardening, primarily cultivating bitterballs and peppers. Under the determined leadership of founders Rachel and Fredrick Gonkartee, the group has grown into a diversified enterprise with multiple income streams, including staple crop farming, seedling production, and industrial oil palm processing.
Their transformation is not merely agricultural; it is structural. By fostering inclusive partnerships with grassroots farming groups such as the women-led Kwakerseh Farming Group and the Senlay and Vayenglay Weidenyen Cooperatives, the enterprise has built a networked model of rural production that emphasizes collective labor, shared investment, and reinvestment into local livelihoods.
These alliances now produce a steady supply of corn, tomatoes, peppers, bitterball, and pre-germinated oil palm seedlings—supporting both household consumption and local markets.
While production had been growing, the absence of processing infrastructure remained a binding constraint. That began to change in 2021, when the enterprise—through a cost-sharing partnership with Solidaridad West Africa and the Ministry of Agriculture—secured a US$200,000 industrial oil palm mill with a capacity to process 2 tons per hour. This upgraded the enterprise’s production potential, allowing local producers to process palm more efficiently and profitably.
The latest STAR-P grant, which funded the acquisition of a kernel oil mill, extends the enterprise’s capacity into a crucial sub-sector—kernel oil production, which has rising demand across Liberia. According to Field Manager Mr. Morris Nuah, the new facility helps resolve longstanding transportation and logistical hurdles faced by both the enterprise and its smaller partner groups.
“Processing capacity was our biggest challenge,” he said. “This grant helped us move from small-scale operations to meeting real market demand. It also gives smaller growers access to value-added processing, which was previously out of reach.”
Beyond its economic success, Rain Forest Agriculture Enterprise represents a powerful model of social enterprise in agriculture. The group reinvests profits to support community needs, including education, housing, and household food security. For members of the Kwakerseh group, the returns have been transformative, allowing many women to finance their children’s schooling and improve their living standards.
“Our aim has never been just farming—it’s about building dignified lives and improved communities,” said Rachel Gonkartee, who also leads the Kwakerseh women’s cooperative. “Today, people see agriculture not as a burden, but as a business.”
The enterprise also invests in knowledge transfer—training new farmers in sustainable practices, organizing daily work rotations, and cultivating leadership among women and youth. It’s an approach that blends traditional cooperation with modern agribusiness strategy.
While the Rain Forest Agriculture Enterprise is thriving, its success underscores an important lesson: targeted and well-managed investment can unlock the potential of rural enterprises. With Liberia still heavily reliant on food imports and struggling with rural poverty, the Gonkartees’ model demonstrates how smallholder-led enterprises can fill systemic gaps, particularly in value addition and market access.
Madam Gonkartee called for deeper public investment and policy focus on grassroots agribusiness:
“We’ve shown that rural-based, community-led enterprises can work. What we need now is sustained support from the Ministry of Agriculture and donors to help groups like ours to continue to scale up our activities.”
The Rain Forest Agriculture Enterprise is more than a farming group—it is a blueprint for inclusive agribusiness-led development. Through strategic partnerships, innovation, and persistence, the group has converted local farming into a vehicle for rural transformation.
As policymakers and development partners search for scalable solutions to food insecurity and rural underdevelopment, Nimba County offers more than just agricultural outputs—it offers inspiration. The success of Rain Forest Agriculture Enterprise proves that when communities are given tools, trust, and targeted support, they can grow far more than crops—they can grow futures.
