Food for Progress The Gambia-Factsheet

Linking Infrastructure Finance & Farms to Cashew (LIFFT-Cashew)

Shelter For Life (SFL) is implementing the Linking Infrastructure, Finance, and Farms to Cashew
(LIFFT-Cashew) project in Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau (SeGaBi) from 2017 to
2025. The following objectives represent the overall project goals of the project:
 • Increase the processing of RCN within the SeGaBi region;
 • Improve or maintain the quality of RCN, and develop organic production;
 • Boost the sales of RCN by local cooperatives, primarily to local processors

The Gambia- Activities

• Infrastructure: Construction and rehabilitation of 14 km of feeder and connector roads
facilitated the expansion of trade in cashew nuts and improved access to markets for
smallholder farmers and processors. In addition,1,000 jobs were created through cash-for-work
opportunities. To date, the project has rehabilitated or constructed 4,065 m3 (four storages
rehabilitated and two new) of raw cashew nut (RCN) storage warehouses enabling cooperatives
to maintain nut quality, organize collective sales, and secure commercial contracts.
• Access to finance: Through public-private partnerships between cooperatives and financial
institutions or private companies more than $1.6 million in financing for cooperatives was
unlocked. The project’s unique Cashew Fund provided $100,000 in loans to two cashew
processors that purchased 75.6 MT of RCN from cooperatives. An additional $395,000 is
planned to be leveraged for processors in 2023. A total of 340 leader cooperative members
were trained in entrepreneurship, business plan development, and financial management.
• Market access: To date, five cooperative societies were strengthened by providing a series of
trainings, coaching on business management, access to finance, sales, and market relations.
A mass cooperative awareness campaign reached at least 4,109 cashew producers, including
1,056 women. Office equipment, supplies, motorcycles, tricycles, and scales were granted to
cooperatives to improve logistics and increase RCN trade. Online and face-to-face B2B
meetings take place annually to link with RCN buyers. These have resulted in 3,827 MT of RCN
sold collectively since the beginning of the project, amounting to $6.48 million in value of sales.
These sales and linkages resulted in RCN and processed cashew nut being exported to the
region, Europe, and the USA. Training on HACCP certification, pre-audits, and technical
assistance was provided to three processing companies to introduce them to food safety
standards to increase international exports. A Gambia cashew sector steering committee has