Food and Enterprise Development Activity Highlights: September 1 to 15, 2016

The event brought together over 300 participants from government, the donor community, international organizations, farmers, and agriculture stakeholders. Keynote addresses were delivered by H.E. Joseph N. Boakai, Vice President of the Republic of Liberia, Dr. Moses Zinnah, Minister of Agriculture, and Hon. Axel Addy, Minister for Commerce and Industry. The Expo featured two plenary sessions and eight break-out workshops, where participants explored key agriculture value chains. FED partners displayed their accomplishments and goods for sale across 12 exposition booths. Prior to the Expo, FED convened multiple partner meetings to prepare for the event. A meeting was held specifically for the hosts of the 12 expo booths, where participants were encouraged to make their booths interactive and educational. A one-day rehearsal was also conducted for all workshop participants, where presenters practiced their presentations and received feedback. The rehearsal included power point presentations, questions and answers, and feedback sessions. During the first half of September, the FED Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) team continued to implement the enterprise survey, finalize the revised Project Management Plan (PMP), and prepare for the second round of the smallholder survey. The survey will focus on cassava and vegetable continuing beneficiaries, as well as new 2016 beneficiaries in the rice and goat value chains. The M&E Director arrived in-country on September 11 to facilitate the enumerator training and launch the survey. FED will meet with USAID on September 15 to discuss ongoing revisions to the PMP. The FED M&E team also conducted a training workshop for 30 enumerators at its offices in Monrovia from September 12-13. The enumerators were trained to administer the first round of the survey, and following the workshop, they deployed to Bong Mines to complete a pre-test of the cassava survey. The pre-test was successful and provided practical field opportunities for the enumerators. The second round of the smallholder survey will launch on September 15, targeting a minimum of 160 respondents per county and 240-250 per value chain, providing a five percent margin of error and a 95 percent confidence level per value chain. In addition to the M&E activities, the FED Component One team celebrated a major milestone when a large Monrovia-based grocery store purchased FED farmer produce. The FED-supported vegetable clusters from Careysburg, Mawah, and Mensah successfully sold two crates of their lettuce to Stop and Shop, who paid US$5 per kilo. This marks the first time that FED farmers have sold their produce directly to a store. The Component One team also continues to finalize the extension materials, which will be copied onto 300 USB drives and issued to the Ministry of Agriculture for further distribution.