National Cocoa Value Chain Policy.

This Policy moves from the consideration that cocoa is the leading agricultural export commodity of Sierra Leone and therefore the improvement of cocoa market offers the country the opportunity to reduce poverty and increase economic development. This Policy provides a competitive approach for the sustainable development of the cocoa sector in Sierra Leone by 2023, enhancing the full potential of the sector by doubling farmers’ incomes, creating jobs, addressing the food security deficit and training farmers on climate change adaptation and mitigation techniques in the cocoa production.
The Policy offers a thorough analysis of the cocoa sector, focusing on the following goals: sustainable and competitive cocoa production; improvement of planting materials; adoption of good agricultural practices by farmers, in order to increase productivity of cocoa plantations; increasing food security and reducing rural poverty through intercropping with food crops especially on young cocoa farms; control and management of pests and diseases affecting cocoa plantations, through access and knowledge on pesticide use; specific climate change adaptation and mitigation techniques; improve access to cultivated land, through inheritance, leasing, purchase; improving cocoa market, promoting fair and transparent trade of quality cocoa products, and accessible price information; strengthening existing cooperatives societies, farmer based organisation and other agricultural business associations; establishment of the National Cocoa Development Board (NCDB), as a public-private partnership dedicated to the transformation of the cocoa sector; empowerment of women and young people in the cocoa value chain.