Cashew food forests
Restoring degraded farmland by establishing plantations of cashew agroforestry.
Cashew farmers display a banner publicising a training course run by the Liberia Cashew Development Association (Photo: Marvees Weah/FAO)
The Liberia Cashew Development Association (LCDA) is an important Liberian tree crop association currently comprising 182 members. A major challenge for farmers in the region has been land degradation through traditional cropping. In order to rehabilitate degraded land, the LCDA has put in place plans to restore the land through cashew tree plantations.
Forest and Farm Facility activities
The Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) has supported the LCDA to enact its land restoration plan. The intervention started in May 2024 with a series of activities that resulted in the establishment of four nurseries and the management of 20,000 cashew seedlings, as well as the distribution and transplanting of over 11,000 seedlings. The process has involved trainings for farmers and support to establish local cashew associations.
The four communities of Gayah Hill and Gbaigbon in Bomi county as well as Aaron village and Tarkpoima in Gbarpolu county donated more than 100 hectares of land towards the efforts. The degraded land was planted with viable cashew seedlings produced and managed by LCDA under its FFF-supported nursery management programme. LCDA has already cultivated 68 hectares of degraded land with cashew crops after just 14 months of active engagement with the four communities.
Additionally, advocacy work by the association has ensured that for the first time, cashew crops have been recognised and included in the National Agriculture Development Plan of Liberia (NADP 2024) in the tree crop sector.
Farmers in the Gbaigbon and Tarkpoima communities see these developments as one way to cope with the effects of climate change, as cashews provide income in more variable climate conditions. After their former nursery site was flooded in 2024, resulting in the destruction of over 5,000 seedlings, the farmers of Tarkpoima have now relocated their nursery site to a less vulnerable location. This has increased resilience in the face of extreme weather events. Meanwhile, in Gbaigbon, farmers have diversified into peanut production before the dry season, which has enhanced the soil health.
Significance of impact
The replanting of degraded lands will have long-term benefits for the farmers by supporting more sustainable revenue generation, ecological restoration, and social and economic cooperation in associations. The transformation of degraded land also benefits biodiversity protection and maintenance.
A farm management committee, comprising of five members from different associations and communities, will ensure the management of LCDA farms is in keeping with their new good agriculture practices guidance.
Conclusion
The restoration of degraded land that has been facilitated through FFF support to LCDA is just the beginning of the story. The LCDA have set a target of reaching 2,000 hectares of cashew agroforestry within five years, provided the required funding, technical and capacity-building support can be mobilised by the increasingly strong association.
Further reading
Crunchy cashews are climate resilience heroes, Forest and Farm Facility (2025)