Interim evaluation
Sao Tome et principe is constituted of two islands at 300 km of Gabon.
The various agro-ecological conditions (930 mm of rainfallsin the north
and more than 7 000 mm in the south) ensure a high agricultural potential.
After independence in 1975, plantations became state enterprises. In 1985,
agricultural policies began to promote farm household and food crop production.
Since 1987, the governement implements Structural Adjustement Programmes
wich aim at the transformation of the formally centrally planned economy
to a liberal market system. The main cultures are: cocoa, coco, palm trees,
cafe. Only 10% of the cultivated area is covered by staple food crops. The
small scale food crop production is done by plantations workers or independent
subsistence farmers. A land reform is planned to allocate land to former
workers of state enterprises, young people trained by the agricultural training
center, former civil servants, unemployed workers.
Project objectives and design
Target group
Project beneficiaries would include plantation workers and independent
subsistence farmers, whose number would increase because of expected lay-offs
in the plantations and the public sector. Vegetable farmers already benefitting
from the Mesquito Centre services would be excluded. The number of expected
beneficiaries is about 3 100 people i.e. 35% to 50% of food crop farmers.
Objectives and components
The project aims at the development of staple food crops as a means
to improve incomes and the nutritional status of poor rural households.
Project components included in the project are:
- A socio-economic study to be undertaken by a socio-economist
and an agronomist. Project components could be revised on the basis
of the study results.
- Input supply including seeds, chemicals and simple tools
would be provided, while storage capacity at the Mesquita Centre would
be improved and mobile sales provided for.
- Extension support through the recruitment of six additional
agents (five existing), staff training and provision of motorcycles.
- Variety trials and seed selection would improve the quality
and the range of available crops, with particular attention to staple
food crops. The Poto Research Station would be strengthened to carry
out soil and fertility tests on demand by the project.
- Seed multiplication to be undertaken to reduce the dependence
from outside sources. Technical assistance would be provided.
- Training would include staff training for extension workers,
with the help of short term consultants, covering fields such as soil
conservation, storage, simple accounting, etc. Farmer training would
take place through field days and demonstration plots.
- Groups, Credit. Existing experience in group support would
be strengthened through the setting up of extension groups. Technical
assistance would be provided to define the modalities and assist in
the implementation. Input credit in kind would be tried out on a pilot
basis.
- Technical Assistance. An assistant would be recruited
for the trials and multiplication activities, and he would function
as the deputy project director, the Mesquita director being the project
coordinator. Short-term consultancies for training and for group formation
has been included
The project design included an comprehensive approach to the development
of staple food crops and was intended to be integrated in the already
on-going programme of the Mesquita Centre. However, from the beginning
in 1989, representatives of the Centre, the FAC, the Cooperating Institution
and IFAD, because of the multitude of sources of financing in support
of the Centre, agreed on a division of labor. Decentralized extension
infrastructure, studies, institutional strengthening, seed selection,
multiplication and storage and if needed, input supply were to be financed
by IFAD. The FAC would continue to support extension, input supply, marketing,
technical assistance, training, and farmer group formation. UNCDF would
support irrigation development.
Expected effects and
assumptions
The project would have a significant impact on the income and well
being of the beneficiaries and would demonstrate to government and donors
that smallholder food production, if properly supported, can contribute
to income growth and to increasing the domestic supply of food stuffs,
without significantly reducing labor availability in the plantations.
Yields would increase of 50%, farmers' income of 180 to 197%. About 3100
households, including 750 plantation workers, 250 independent farmers
and 2100 producers already supported by Mesquita, would produce an additional
350 tons of maize, 1000 tons of root crops, and 800 tons of vegetables.
This would allow a gradual reduction in food aid.
The asumption was made that a broad based food sector support project
would constitute a basis for a dialogue with the government on food policies.
Evaluation
Implementation context
Since 1989, the vegetable market has been saturated. The maize market
has been disturbed by the WFP importations. There were a general falling
of the real purchasing power of households and a rise in the price of
inputs, due to the continuous devaluation of the local currency.
Project achievements
(a) Socio-economic study was carried out in 1989/90 and it
analyzed several aspects of the smallholder household. It made several
specific recommendations, most of which have not been implemented.
(b) Input Supply. IFAD funds have been used on an ad hoc
basis when other sources were not available. Sales receipts in domestic
currency were intended to be used for the construction of storage with
farmer groups. Due to the lack of operating funds at the Centre, these
funds had to be used for this purpose and no support to groups for storage
materialized.
(c) Extension. This activity has been financed by the FAC and
IFAD support was only marginal. In 1991, on-farm trials were initiated
and at present, some 60 of such trials are ongoing.
(d) Variety trials and seed selection was the main activity of
the project. A total of 7 food crop species (maize, cassava, rice, soya,
igname, potatoes), 12 fruit species and 36 vegetable species, including
309 different varieties were put on trial and by 1992, a total of 400
varieties would have been tested. The required material was obtained in
different countries in the region and through direct imports from Europe.
(e) Seed multiplication has remained at a level to allow further
variety trials and demonstration but has not yet reached significant levels
for distribution to producers, with the exception of maize and sweet potatoes.
(f) Training. A total of 62 man-months were available for overseas
training, of these, three short training courses have been used: two on
data processing, in relation to the socio-economic survey, in Portugal,
and one on seed selection and multiplication, in France. Extension training
has been realized by the AFVP technical assistance, funds for short term
consultancies for group formation and credit have not been utilized, mainly
because other donor's grant financing was available and because CLUSA
implemented a programme for that purpose.
(g) Support to Poto Research Station was provided as planned.
However, the capacity of the Poto station to provide pedological and phytopathological
analyses on demand by the project is still very limited. Some of the project
trials have been carried out on the station.
(h) Technical assistance in variety trials and multiplication
has been in place since 1990 and has limited its scope strictly to this
activity, the coordination with other activities of the Centre being difficult
because of the lack of consensus on the objectives and methods. It has
not taken up its role of deputy director of the Centre as foreseen.
Effects assessment
and sustainability
Beneficiaries: beneficiaries of the extension and input supply
activities of the Centre have been about 1200 farmers, mainly engaged
in commercial vegetable p_oduction. Several farmer groups growing maize
in the Centre and the North of the country have also been reached.
After only two years of effective project implementation, the project
impact is limited.
Effects on beneficiaries incomes: it is obviously too early
for the elaboration of an estimate of the expected project impact on national
food production and on farmer incomes, the more so as the functioning
of the different farming systems in place is not sufficiently known.
Effects on the environment: the trial programme has significantly
increased the genetic capital in the country by the introduction of numerous
species and varieties.
The institutional impact of the project includes the establishment
of an applied research and multiplication service, which is a precondition
for the improvement of the domestic food production. Its impact has however
been limited by the lack of coordination with other services, due to weak
management capacities at the Centre, but also to personality issues. The
project has contributed to the institutional strengthening of the Centre
by the provision of the required equipment and infrastructure.
Main issues
Unforeseen factors
A number of unforeseen factors have affected the project, including:
a higher than expected level of productivity in existing farming systems,
growing basic foods like banana, breadfruit and manioc; an early saturation
of the vegetable market and a falling real purchasing power in other markets;
a rise in the price of inputs, due to continuous devaluation of the local
currency; and delays in the implementation of the land reform programme.
Lack of understanding of the rural sector
Because the lack of understanding of the rural situation, a socio-economic
study was planned. The results would have allowed to define what were
the activities and services needed by the target group and thus to orientate
projects components. This study had been done and presented several usefull
recommendations about extension, commercialization, credit, farmers' organizations,
monitoring and evaluation unit. But, the results were not taken into account.
The FAC, cooperating institution and IFAD agreed on a division of labour
before results of the socio-economic study were available.
Project concept
With the division of labour between representatives of the center, the
FAC and IFAD, the IFAD project shift from an integrated rural development
project to a seed selection and multiplication project.
Implementation of this approach has been constrained by: i) the lack
of a single, well defined strategy and priority setting mechanism at the
Centre, which would have allowed to orient the different donor support
and apply similar implementation approaches; ii) the lack of a coordination
mechanism; iii) the delay in the implementation of the land reform programme,
reducing the number of potential smallholder beneficiaries.
Recommandations
and lessons learned
The recommandations for the short term are:
- Trials and selection needs to give priority to crops for which
farmer demand exists: tomatoes, beans, potatoes, bananas, maize and
igname. Participatory research, based on farmer identified constraints,
needs to be initiated. Multiplication of available material needs
to be expanded.
- Support to input supply needs to be increased, focussing on regular
supplies of essential inputs.
- The Centre needs to privatize the last 50 ha on which it presently
undertakes crop production. The remaining 15 ha are required for trials
and multiplication.
- A six month training consultancy should be undertaken to train
the accounting staff and to assist them in implementing the recommendations
of the most recent audit. An overall training programme for Centre
staff and farmers needs to be drawn up and implemented.
- Urgent maintenance work on the existing infrastructure needs to
be undertaken.
- A Monitoring and Evaluation system needs to be set up based on
the informations kept on each farmer supported by the Centre and on
a sample of farms designed according to the recent National Agricultural
Census. Consultant support may be provided for this.
- Studies on the market potential of domestic food crops and of smallholder
export crops need to be undertaken urgently. This is a top priority
if a new IFAD project has to be prepared.
- Together with CLUSA, specific support to farmer groups in input
supply should be defined, e.g. local storage construction, in order
to prepare for increased participation of groups in input supply.
- In discussion with the government, FAC and IFAD, some measures
to strengthen the extension service need to be undertaken, such as
the decentralization and the provision of transport.
- A participatory research programme on farming systems (Research-Development)
needs to be initiated on crop profitability, soil conservation, and
fertility, integration of livestock and agriculture, storage, marketing,
etc.
The elaboration of a future programme would need to be coordinated
with design exercises of other donors, notably the French FAC and CCE.
For this new programme, the target group will be newly settled farm households
on distributed land and existing smallholders producing for subsistence.
Particular attention will be given to resource poor households such as
landless and female headed households. About 6000 households could be
supported in a seven year period, including 4500 newly settled households.
The objectives will be to promote not only productive activities in food
crops but also diversified export crops and non-farm activities; to promote
autonomous farmer groups, able to manage their own development, to develop
complete and sustainable "filières" for input supply and agricultural
products, processing and marketing, and to improve the standard of living
of the poor rural households.
The proposed approach aims at integrating newly settled and existing
smallholder households in economically viable activities and to improve
the basic services and the social environment through self-managed structures.
In priority setting and implementation, a participatory approach would
be adopted.
Lessons learned:
i) The coordination with donors engaged in the same sector is very important.
This coordination should be effective in project design in order to elaborate
commun strategie and during project implementation to ensure a good working
of the project.
ii) To ensure an operational use of initial socio-economic studies, a
mechanism has to be designed to operationalize the findings, such as through
a restitution mission, a workshop on the results, a programming meeting
and integration in the M&E system.
iii) pilot projects need to be linked to a sufficiently developed M&E
system which will improve the understanding of the sector and the socio-economic
conditions.
iv) In the case of unknown situation such as Sao Tome small holder agriculture,it
is essential to propose a more active beneficiary participation in the
design and the monitoring of the project and even a participatory research.
v) In general, in countries undertaking structural adjustment programmes,
the mobilization of the government contribution to the project is often
difficult. Mechanisms may be designed, which avoid projects to stall because
of delays in the mobilization of these local funds.
