General lessons of experience

This section presents some general lessons of experience, emphasizing on those lessons that have significant implications for both Government and IFAD decision-makers. Whether the lessons highlight the various dimensions of the issues under consideration, or express a judgment about what suld be done or avoided in the future, they form the basis of the practical recommendations that are presented in the third and last part of this summary.

On the rehabilitation of productive infrastructure

Provision of drinking water contributes to production increase, particularly of livestock. However, future drilling programmes will be faced with the serious constraint that aquifer test data are not available. The implementation of a proper maintenance and servicing system is of the greatest importance. As the operating and maintenance costs (spare parts and fuel) require availability of adequate foreign currency, it will be difficult to operate the wateryards without external financing of recurrent costs for a number of years. This should be an integral part of any rehabilitation investment package.

Irrigation rehabilitation was intended to be a quick response to the problem of deteriorating productive infrastructure, but became in practice a substitute for a proper development strategy. In addition the achievements were below the targets and proved unsustainable.

The major cause of productive infrastructure degradation is related to the general problem of the role of parastatals in development. On a global scale, the concept failed because of the lack of motivation, autonomy, competition and of fiscal discipline which resulted in the lack of care and maintenance of public assets. It is therefore extremely important that any rehabilitation of physical infrastructure be tied to a restructuring of the institutional framework, avoiding a mere restoration of what used to be.

The private small-scale schemes offer great potential for support to development because they are self-managed and require much lower investments in civil works than larger public schemes. In addition, the supply of irrigation water need not be subsidized in such private small-scale schemes.

On the generation and dissemination of improved technology

The rationale in all the projects was that although some technology was available which could be supported by projects, knowledge in some areas was inadequate or missing. This contention appears basically valid but the designs of some of the projects were too all-encompassing in their scope.

A general lesson for adaptive research methodology is that the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) decision to give extension services the responsibility for conducting on-farm trials has imposed a limitation on the amount of effective off-station adaptive research that is undertaken. Extensionists are generally not equipped either through training in research methodology or resources to effectively carry out on-farm research by themselves.

The training-and-visit system of extension is too expensive and complicated given the situation in The Sudan. Projects should aim to leave behind them a small, well-trained and well-networked extension service which is matched to government financial resources.

On credit as a development tool

The availability of technical packages is a prerequisite for the success of rural credit. The time required to develop a technical package which is project-specific is a major obstacle to effective rural credit. So are widespread market failures in areas where infrastructure is weak.

The definition of small farmers eligible for credit is project-specific. In irrigated agriculture, the size of land owned is only partially useful, since the location of land and the source of water are important determinants of its value. In traditional rainfed areas, neither land owned nor areas cultivated are sufficient in determining eligibility. Rainfall and crops grown are more important in that respect.

On participatory development

There are a number of elements, on which project designers and managers may have a leverage, that are conducive to beneficiaries' participation:

- an appropriate communication strategy (with corresponding provisions in project budget) to link project staff and the target population;

- adherence to project objectives of community leaders and enlightened members of the group, including teachers and other educated persons;

- responsiveness of implementing agencies to farmers' views;

- evidence that early participants benefit from the project;

- adequate funding to ensure that project benefits are not limited to a minority of households;

- adequate funding for group formation and farmers' training;

- optimal size of group/cooperative membership (to be determined on a case-by-case basis).