Enabling poor rural people
to overcome poverty
Main issues and findings
Investment in irrigation has been undertaken to resolve two major related problems, surface and groundwater irrigation:
(i) the heavy loss in the water conveyance system and the subsequent inequitable distribution of water among the users, particularly between head and tail-end farmers; and
(ii) waterlogging and salinity.
In the late 1970s, IFAD supported public sector programmes in tubewell development. At the time an important policy shift aimed at phasing out these public programmes in favour of private tubewell development was already taking place. The performance of the IFAD project was, not surprisingly, as deficient as previous similar projects which motivated the change in policy.
The subsequent involvement of IFAD in private minor and micro-irrigation tubewells, through improved access to credit, has contributed to the increase in agricultural production, particularly in the case of small farmers.
IFAD contributed to the early attempts at introducing participatory development in the irrigation sub-sector from the very beginning of its programme in 1979. These efforts were constrained, however, by the:
(i) non-conducive socio-political situation in rural areas of the irrigation sector; and
(ii) insufficient experience of technical implementing agencies in social organization activities.
While Water Users' Associations (WUAs) were useful for the smooth implementation of on-farm water management projects, they were not meant, by reason of their design to target the poor specifically.
Sustainability of project benefits has been difficult to ensure, particularly for public tubewells and structures. Capital investment has been highly subsidized; cost recovery and the collection of water charges are inadequate.
Recommendations
Because of the socio-political situation and the land ownership patterns which exist in the Indus basin, there is little room for reaching the poor through building and rehabilitating irrigation infrastructure unless the projects:
(i) ensure that rehabilitation covers the entire command areas of minor or distributary canals, instead of renovating isolated water courses; and
(ii) support private investment in underground water resources development (tubewells) at the tail-end and possibly at the middle reaches of the schemes, where feasible.
41. IFAD should increase its assistance to private minor irrigation through supervised credit. This is also consistent with the search for greater efficiency in water resource use, leading to higher agricultural productivity. Similarly, there are indications that investment in irrigation channel rehabilitation and expansion in area development schemes will have a high pay-off, although this is not likely to be equitably distributed among various social groups.
Technology generation and dissemination
Main results
To meet the national objectives of increased export earnings and increased self-sufficiency in food grains, GOP has devoted most of its resources in the research and extension field, to three major crops, cotton, rice, and wheat, primarily in the large scale irrigation sub-sector.
The organization of research and extension appears to be both complex and fragmented, a situation which inevitably leads to inefficient allocation of resources and poor coordination between independent structures. Moreover, scarce budgetary resources and qualified staff have been unevenly distributed among the provinces.
IFAD-funded projects did help to increase agricultural productivity. However, in this difficult institutional and budgetary context, the increases have generally fallen short of targets. In particular, extension services continue to lag behind and often do not fulfil the advisory role the farming community desires. The agent of change is often poorly qualified and ill-equipped to assist farmers due to lack of superior knowledge and/or appropriate technical packages and mobility. A focus on wealthier landholders is still predominant.
Livestock has been acknowledged by landless and smallholders to be an economically efficient renewable resource which can serve as surety, a source of immediate liquidity, use of surplus farm labour and crop residues, and is therefore an aid to sustainable development. Poor and landless people have complained, however, of a lack of access to veterinary services supposedly aimed at them specifically. Projects have generally ignored species other than cattle and buffalos, particularly small ruminants.
46. Forestry activities have so far reached all categories of farmers, including the landless. It is encouraging to note that farmers are taking up forestry and are keen to diversify into agro-forestry and horticulture-based systems, which will contribute to long-term sustainability and environmental improvement. Further benefits could be derived from a greater involvement of farmers' groups, as well as individuals, in raising nurseries, tree plantation and management.
On the availability of technical packages suitable for the target groups
First generation projects assumed that appropriate technology was basically available. They closely linked the dissemination of technology to the provision of a key input or means of production such as water, finance, mechanical equipment or seasonal inputs. In most cases they provided very limited support to the extension wing of a national institution whose purpose was not primarily extension. In the second generation projects, resource allocation for the generation and dissemination of technology has progressively increased, assuming an important share in participatory projects, though some wide variations were noticed from one project to another.
Experience shows that it was unrealistic to assume that there were readily available appropriate technologies for dissemination. This assumption has overlooked the diversities of agricultural production in Pakistan, a product of heterogenous ecological zones, ranging from rainfed to fully irrigated, with various elevations, landownership patterns, traditions, cultural traits, and socio-economic status, of the landless and women.
A major intervention to improve the net income of smallholders is to increase the cropping intensity. This is possible only, however, if technological solutions are available which permit the growing of different crops in sequence or in relay cropping, keeping in mind the weather conditions, especially temperature, which determine the crop sowing, growth and harvesting periods. Often the improved varieties available need further genetic modification to enable them to be used in an intensive cropping pattern. This requires further research to produce seedlings for transplanting (in case of rice and vegetables) which would prolong the growing period in the field, especially in cold environments like Chitral.
There is a need for greater awareness among designers and project staff of the potential synergy among crops, livestock, and forestry under various levels of labour availability on the farm. A concentration on individual components limits the ability of project staff to understand the constraints which affect farmers' responses to proposed innovation. For example, farmers' reluctance to adopt HYV of wheat that produce less straw is due to the value of straw as animal fodder.
On extension methods
IFAD-financed projects, especially those that have been cofinanced, initially adopted the expensive, resource-intensive training and visit (T&V) method of extension which does not prove to be consistent either with GOP budgetary constraints or with IFAD's intention of reaching its target groups, namely small farmers, tenants, the landless and women.
Subsequently, IFAD distanced itself from this approach with the adoption of demand-driven extension. Participatory extension methods represent a significant qualitative improvement. The selection by farmers' groups of their own representatives for apprenticeship enhances the value of the service, by demonstrating that ordinary members can acquire the expertise, and by its availability on a continuous basis since the selected member of the group lives in the village.
Recommendations
In the past, project support to institutional capacity-building in the field of research and extension tended to focus on physical facilities and equipment, with little attention given to setting up specific delivery objectives at the farm level. In Pakistan, the multiplicity of research and extension agencies and the existence of overlapping mandates between them poses the problem of the selection of which line agency should be supported by a given project. At a minimum, project designers should be aware of the full range of alternatives before making a choice. As it will be, more often than not, difficult to truly assess the respective strengths and weaknesses of alternative institutional vehicles, the contractual approach should be generalized and conditions for fair competition between concerned agencies for project support be created. This implies setting clearly spelled-out links between project support and effective results on the ground. If such a contractual approach proves efficient, it could gradually form the basis of projects' contribution to local institutional capacity. In the longer term, the generalization of this approach could substitute more conventional forms of project-supported institutional capacity-building.
In this respect, it is worth recalling some general principles that apply in Pakistan like everywhere else in the world. The availability and relevance of an "improved technical package" must primarily be considered from the farmers' perspective. While the specialist basically judges a given technical package in terms of productivity and income increases, the farmer also looks at its utility, opportunity cost, and associated risks. Unless it can be demonstrated, in actual farming conditions, that a proposed technical package is competitive with best farming practices in a given area, the package may not be adopted by the intended beneficiaries or by the target group.
The implications of the above considerations on project design are multiple. Firstly, project designers should no longer assume that appropriate technology, particularly technology specific to the conditions and activities of the target groups, is broadly available. Secondly, whenever IFAD considers an intervention in a new area, it should commission a thorough assessment of existing farming systems with particular reference to farmers' practices, constraints and productivity. This assessment would also include an analysis of the availability of technical solutions. Particular attention should be paid to the availability of on-farm trials and to their results. The best timing for such an assessment to take place is between inception and formulation of the project. Thirdly, the phasing of project activities and the estimates of benefit flows should fully recognize the need for a lead time before adaptive research results are made available to the farmers through extension services. Experience shows this is almost never achieved within the project life when construction of physical facilities is a prerequisite for adaptive research activities to take place. Finally, it is strongly recommended to build into project design a strong monitoring and technical support capacity as far as adaptive research and extension activities are concerned. A practical way to do it is to link, through contractual agreements, the new project with a pilot project or any relevant source of TA that have the required expertise. These lessons, it is believed, have wider relevance than the particular context from which they have been derived.
The projects (including those in the early stages of implementation) should concentrate on developing packages to suit the specific needs of the poor. The landless and rural women depend on dairy animals and poultry; therefore technical packages related to their nutrition, health care, husbandry and product handling should be given priority.
The availability of arable land is a limiting factor in increasing the net family incomes of small farmers. Since horizontal expansion is not viable, the only possibility for increasing net family incomes is to make the land-use pattern more remunerative by introducing higher value crops, increasing cropping intensities especially when irrigation is provided to the predominantly rainfed areas, and by increasing yields. This is possible through the introduction of short duration HYV varieties, inter-cropping or relay cropping.
Participatory extension methods which have so far yielded some positive results in Pakistan, should be further supported by IFAD, and their implementation closely monitored and carefully assessed in preparation for expanded application in the future. To further enhance extension effectiveness, a coordinated approach in which Social Organizers (SOs) and representatives of various departments (extension, horticulture, livestock and forestry) conduct joint field visits should be adopted.
There is a need for some special attention to women's extension services. More efforts should be made to recruit female extensionists for both crops and livestock services, since male extensionists stand few chances of successfully reaching women directly. There are already experiences such as female mobile credit officers (MCOFs), in the dissemination of credit and ladies' social organizers in the organization of women. It is possible that these fragmented activities will soon reach the stage where they will be able to provide services to women on a regular basis.
The benefits of those projects which adopted low-cost measures for soil and water conservation have spread to a large number of farmers in IFAD's target groups. In spite of these evident socio-economic benefits of small field structures, there is always some risk of project activities tending towards the interests of a few influential, and generally affluent, landowners. The construction of mini-dams and ponds carried out under the Second Barani Area Development Project is illustrative of such a risk.
The soil and water conservation activities on farmers' fields have an evident impact on agricultural production and environmental protection. Overall soil conservation strategy should concentrate on measures which improve infiltration and moisture storage. The Master Plan for the Barani Area, being compatible with IFAD's goals of specificity, should continue to serve as the fundamental guideline for present and future IFAD interventions in the area.
For many years, rural water supply has been considered a basic social and health utility which governments are obliged to provide. Recent policy changes, from free social utility to services for which the users must pay, enhance the prospect of sustainability. But to ensure success, GOP should involve the beneficiaries in the design and implementation of these schemes and support grass roots organizations to enable them to carry out these new responsibilities.
The farm-to-market roads included in IFAD-financed projects have been soundly selected, particularly with the clear criteria set for that purpose. Implementation by the Construction and Works (C&W) Departments has generally been smooth and maintenance does not pose serious difficulties since it is undertaken by these Departments. The approach followed in Chitral district, which relied on the active participation of the beneficiary population through Village Organizations (VOs), could serve as a model for similar future undertakings.
Provided relevant and clear criteria for the selection of rural infrastructure are identified and adhered to, there is no doubt that rural infrastructure is a major determinant of development, particularly in remote rural areas. The demand for infrastructure activities can be expected to grow as IFAD continues to develop village-based initiatives; the Fund should therefore be ready to support these type of activities to whatever extent possible.