Through a partnership with Monrovia city officials, WAYAACP AG procures fallow 5-20 HA parcels suitable for lowland rice and vegetable farming within a five mile radius of Monrovia’s central markets. WAYAACP members form themselves into teams of 3-6 youth (aged 16-30). Each team commits to farming a ½ to 2 HA blocks of a parcel. Teams are provided with food for work valued at up to 10% of the cash value of their projected yield and input assistance (seed rice, fertilizer, pesticides) up to 40% of the cash value of their projected yield. The input assistance program only provides improved rice varieties (focused on NERICA and WITTA strains that have already been introduced in Liberia[1]). Any team receiving fertilizer and/or pest management input assistance must participate in a WAYAACP AG funded on-site fertilizer/pest best practice consultation with a qualified agronomist. All teams will receive on-site training in and must agree to adhere to WAYAACP AG lowland rice management best practices (See Appendix A). In order to incentivize best practice adoption, cash incentives will be paid to farmers that exceed performance targets.
All members of WAYAACP team will be expected to attend weekly organization-wide training meetings. The workshops will run 3 hours and include an agronomics skill-building activity, best practice sharing and development focused on self-efficacy and agency of teams. Weekly meetings will be led by the WAYAACP AG leadership team and invited experts. When necessary, per diems will be provided to expert guests. A meal will be provided at each weekly meeting (for sample meeting agenda see Appendix B). No other remuneration will be given for attendance.
At harvest, WAYAACP AG employs appropriate technologies to provide fee-for-use threshing, drying and milling services. During the harvest period, depending on resource availability, WAYAACP AG may contract milling services to other farmers at market rates. After post-harvest processing is complete, WAYAACP AG guarantees purchase of the entire crop at market prices. Credit in the form of food for work and input assistance is paid back to WAYAACP AG as a lump sum amount at harvest. In practice, credit will be deducted from the amount owed to participants for rice sold to WAYAACP AG. Depending on market conditions, WAYAACP AG may store rice from 6- 9 months. Since market prices are significantly depressed at harvest time, WAYAACP AG targets a 50% margin on storage activities. Furthermore, centralized storage will give WAYAACP AG complete control of marketing activities. In addition to transferring storage risk from participants to WAYAACP AG and consolidating marketing efforts, WAYAACP AG plans to fund overhead and expansion through income earned from these activities.
[1] Visions in Action recently completed a study on 14 NERICA and WITTA strains in Lofa county, Liberia, http://visionsinaction.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=83&Itemid=198
