The overall objectives of the project are:
- To increase national food-grain production so as to raise, in the shortest time possible, the food-grain consumption of the largest possible number of people suffering from severe and generalized reductions in food intake.
- To restore and sustain animal production in the hilly areas, thereby
enhancing household incomes through increased sales of animal products
and improved household food security and nutrition through the greater
availability of high-energy food and animal protein.
Activities
The livestock component will include:
- Poultry development
- Rural credit
- Goat and pasture development
- General livestock support (feed mills, a livestock support fund and institutional support)
The crop component will deliver a package of inputs to
the country’s most productive grain growing area. Funds generated
by the sale of these inputs will be used subsequently to finance further
poverty-alleviation activities.
Outcome
The project has achieved many of its intended results, and has significantly contributed to the production of grain and the rebuilding of livestock systems and production at cooperative farms under the project. At the same time, utilization of the facilities established under the project is below appraisal expectations. Several of the feed mills are without essential ingredients and there is a large dependence on imported material. Most of the facilities are under performing due to the lack of proper support. Also poor animal performance in certain locations is a source of concern. The level of animal husbandry especially in the small-scale farms is low and farmers lack of relevant training. Sustainability of various project components is not assured.
The most outstanding feature of the Project is the credit component. About 60% of the loan recipients have been women headed households and the project has had a significant impact on empowerment of women. Beneficiary households have grasped the opportunities made available through the project and the benefits have been in excess of expectations. Loan recovery is near 100 percent and clients are keen to reborrow increased amount of capital. Beneficiary interviews indicate that the household credit component have increased nutrition and incomes significantly at household level of project target groups. However, the future of the household credit component is being threatened by the adjustment of prices in July 2002 that depleted its revolving fund.
Access to inputs and infrastructure
| Planned |
Achieved |
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| To facilitate the provision of credit to households for the purchase of livestock, including breeding goats. To establish a livestock-support fund to undertake
pilot activities and provide equipment and inputs to key livestock
support services. |
Household credit was successfully extended. No information is yet available on the operation of the livestock
support fund. |
| There are about 3 000 agricultural cooperatives, accounting for some 6 million members, which play crucial social and welfare roles, providing the institutional framework for the delivery of government-financed educational and health services. The project decided to strengthen the potential of cooperatives and individual farmers to maximize the benefits from livestock production. |
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| Planned |
Achieved |
|
| To provide training and technical assistance. To support livestock institutions serving cooperatives and individual farmers through the provision of inputs, including equipment and vehicles. |
By December 2000, an intensive training programme had been organized for the managers and chief accountants of poultry units and for cooperative accountants. The training team included senior trainers from the People’s Economic University and the Livestock Management Faculty of the Agriculture University, as well as experienced managers of state enterprises. Management and financial training was complemented by technical training in poultry management. A study tour on credit management was made to China. The project has supported the Poultry Engineering Research Institute
and county veterinary centres by providing equipment and training. |
|
| The principal challenge facing D.P.R. Korea in the agricultural sector is the need to adjust to major structural changes caused largely by the growing cost of fertilizer and fuel, while avoiding increased rural poverty. IFAD’s strategy is to support, partly through grass-roots-oriented credit programmes, a greater diversification (across cooperatives) and specialization (within cooperatives) of the agricultural sector. This should improve prevailing land-use and resource-allocation patterns. |
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| Planned |
Achieved |
|
| To provide loans to individual households to finance livestock and side-line activities. To provide working capital loans to poultry-breeding units, broiler-fattening
units and feed mills.
|
A total of 30,531 loans
were disbursed between 1998 and 2002 to individual households. In
general, the project lending performance has been judged successful.
About 60% of the loan recipients have been women headed households
and the most popular livestock activities have been rabbit, poultry,
goat, pig and goose rearing in the order of importance. |
|
| The counties of the livestock sub-project are located in a mountainous area, where there are no opportunities for large increases in crop production. Project cooperatives and householders have historically kept livestock as a means of augmenting their incomes from crop production. There are some unused uplands suitable for pasture development and opportunities to make better use of available feed resources. The shortages in food supply have led to the cultivation of hillside slopes, resulting in environmental degradation and greater risks of flooding. |
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| Planned |
Achieved |
|
| To develop pasture for goat production through the conversion of sloping land under cultivation and of scrub. To implement soil conservation measures, such as gully rehabilitation, the building of stone contour-bunds and the channelling of minor watercourses. |
By the end of 2001, improved varieties of grasses and clovers had been established on 8 500 hectares of grazing land. Pasture development was proceeding as planned, although some doubts were expressed about the ability of the new species to survive unmanaged in the project grazing areas. No information is yet available on the progress of the soil-conservation
measures. |
|
| At project appraisal, it was observed that the farmers were relying on crop residues, purpose-grown fodder and supplementary maize as a feed base. The feeding system was handicapped primarily by a lack of protein, vitamins and minerals to balance the fibre and starch content and secondarily by a deficiency in digestible energy. As a result, off-take levels were lower than they would have been under a balanced diet. The situation was aggravated by a lack of foreign exchange for the purchase of feed. The limited availability of feed had led to a reduction in the number of animals raised by cooperatives and individuals. |
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| Planned |
Achieved |
|
| To provide foreign exchange to allow the importation of feed. Working-capital loans were to be supplied to cooperatives, principally for the purchase of feed. To rehabilitate eight existing feed mills and construct two new ones. Working-capital loans were to be provided to feed mills. |
In the absence of sufficient feed from local sources, the project provided funds for the procurement of raw feed materials from China for onward credit-lending to feed mills. This feed was later sold to the cooperatives. Feed mills were rehabilitated and constructed as planned. |
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| The poor hilly areas of the country are well suited to specialized activities such as livestock-rearing, especially since the opportunities for improving income and nutrition through crop development are extremely limited. Individual householders purchase breeding, laying or fattening stock from their cooperatives. Despite a good standard of husbandry, animal productivity levels are low due to an unbalanced feeding regime. Householders are free to sell livestock products in the farmers’ markets or to the state purchasing unit. Livestock products provide protein for home consumption, and their sale produces a significant component of household annual cash incomes. Women play an important role in animal-rearing. |
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| Planned |
Achieved |
|
| To procure 20 000 breeding
goats and supply them to cooperative farms and individual households. To construct a chicken layer and broiler-breeding unit with hatchery. To construct 20 broiler-chicken-fattening units. To establish and equip a broiler-processing unit to process and chill a minimum of 450 000 broilers per year. To provide support to Kusong Goose Breeding Farm in the form of renovation work and the provision of breeder geese, incubators, hatcheries and vehicles. To provide support for training in poultry-raising, to be supplied
by the Poultry Engineering Research Institute. |
By the time of the mid-term review, 13 060 goats had been procured and distributed to cooperative farms and individual households, contributing to an increase in goat numbers. However, by 2000, goat populations had reached the 1994 levels, and it was decided to halt goat importation due to pasture constraints. Five chicken layer-breeding units were built. The project had procured specialized layer-breeding and hatching equipment and vans. However, it was suggested that the breeding units were being underutilized, partly due to climatic constraints (a lack of sufficient light). The layer and broiler-breeder unit was constructed, equipped and operational by December 1998. A total of 335 600 birds had been distributed by September 2000. All 20 broiler-fattening units were completed and operational by December 2000. However, their economic viability was uncertain due to the lack of a steady supply of chicks from breeder units. The broiler-processing plant was established, but was faced with the same problem of low utilization, worsened by the limited market for the processed birds. At Kusong Goose Hatchery and Breeding Farm, six rearing sheds were renovated, provided with computerized incubators, fully equipped and supplied with breeding geese. The production target is 240 000 eggs per annum. The Poultry Engineering Research Institute prepared a comprehensive
teaching plan in February 1998 covering poultry, waterfowl and goat
production. Several veterinarians, technicians, farm managers and
personnel were trained. In 1999, it conducted a three-day training
workshop for veterinary officers from the ten project counties,
as well as a workshop for cooperative-level technicians. The project
engaged a poultry consultant to carry out training. Nevertheless,
it was noted that project staff still demonstrated limited understanding
of technical issues relating to poultry. |
|
| Prior to the project, veterinary services were provided and disease control activities performed by veterinary centres situated in each county. However, these centres were faced with a lack of equipment, transport for field visits and cold storage facilities. Where equipment existed, it was found to be obsolete and non-functional, limiting diagnostic capabilities. |
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| Planned |
Achieved |
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| To rehabilitate and re-equip the ten veterinary service centres within the project area. |
The veterinary centres were supplied with equipment and bicycles for transport. Although their performance has been enhanced, their diagnostic and treatment facilities remain limited. |
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- Credit to micro-enterprises has proven to be a powerful tool to increase income levels of the households in this project. Assistance for micro-enterprises provided under the project has brought substantial benefits to the participating households.
- Support services play a vital role in ensuring success of the micro-enterprise. The participating households are quickly moving from keeping a few chickens and a pig to rearing a wider variety of livestock in substantial numbers. This requires training in improved management practises, regular vaccination and disease control measures.
- In order to foster sustainability, projects should ensure that the supply of inputs relevant to the continuation of project activities is guaranteed, or that alternative sources of supply can be developed. The inability of breeder farms to supply stock jeopardized the operations of the fattening units.
- There is a need to promote adaptive research in areas such as herd improvement, disease control and surveillance, fodder production and pasture development as an essential component in the development of a sustainable animal production system.
- Facilities must be appropriately designed in order to avoid compromising project activities. At appraisal, the layer and broiler houses had not been designed with controlled lighting, even though lighting increases the egg output, feed conversion and growth rates.
- The development and utilization of local, rather than imported, feed
should be encouraged in order to promote the long-term sustainability
of project activities.
