The European Union funded Boosting Agriculture and Food Security (BAFS) Programme through its implementing partners, Solidaridad West Africa, and Deutsche Welthungerhilfe (WHH) in collaboration with the Produce Monitoring Board (PMB) jointly convened the Sierra Leone Cocoa Coffee Cashew Platform (SLCCCP) meeting on Wednesday, 13 April 2022, at the New Brookfields Hotel in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

The objective of the meeting was to discuss technical issues and challenges affecting the cocoa, coffee, and cashew value chains and sustainability of the platform in order to increase productivity, viability and competitiveness of the sector.

During the meeting, participants deliberated on resource mobilization strategies, sustainability of the platform and farmer organizations, and trainings for farmers, marketing and exporting of products, land tenure challenges, as well as issues on productivity, quality control, certification and regulatory frameworks.

The platform comprise of four technical working groups with representatives from key government ministries, development partners, national farmers federation and cooperatives, international and national non-governmental organizations and key private sector actors within the value chains.

Solidaridad West Africa is implementing the Boosting Agriculture and Food Security (BAFS) project aimed at tapping the full potential of cocoa, coffee and cashew by supporting farmers with improved seed varieties and innovative farming techniques to increase their income and improve their livelihoods. The objective is to create more job opportunities, address the critical issues of food insecurity in local communities and to boost sustainable production capacity in the sector.

The BAFS programme has supported 7,818 beneficiaries who have cultivated approximately 5,182 hectares of land planted with improved varieties of the cash crops across 12 districts in Sierra Leone.

The EU’s intervention aims to develop a vibrant, competitive and profitable Cocoa, Coffee and Cashew economy, promote agro-forestry production systems as a means to ensure an increase in productivity by also responding to the need to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change through reduction of deforestation and forest degradation.