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Activities
The project has four components:
- organizational strengthening and participation;
- smallholder support services;
- rural financial services;
- programme management and monitoring and evaluation/learning.
Objectives
The main objective of the project is to alleviate rural
poverty by raising the income levels and living standards of the rural
poor.
The specific objectives of the programme include:
- strengthening beneficiary organizations and sectoral institutions
in order to foster participation, ownership and the sustainability of
policies and interventions;
- improving the access by project beneficiaries to financial resources
in order to support productive investment and create rural micro-enterprises;
- strengthening a central institutional mechanism to coordinate rural
development initiatives and investment projects;
- providing sustainable access to production support services for small-scale
agricultural producers and small and medium-sized enterprises;
- instituting a participatory monitoring and evaluation system that
will allow for the close follow-up of processes, actions and field impact,
while fostering learning processes and innovation in rural development.
Outcome
The project is ongoing.
Organizations
and people
| Rural poverty
has been a persistent feature of Uruguay’s agricultural
sector, although the causes have varied over time depending on
the social, economic and political context. Between the end of
the 19th century and the 1930s, the root causes of poverty were
related to the existence of large groups of landless rural workers
who received temporary employment on large ranches in the central,
eastern and northern parts of the country. Currently, farmers
must deal with small incomes because of the low price for milk
and farm products even from relatively large farms.
The survival strategy of critically poor rural families is built
around the production of foodstuffs, seasonal migratory work (by
males) in nearby towns and domestic work (by women), mainly in
Montevideo. The end-result is a breakdown of the family unit,
and families are often evicted from their property since they
are unable to pay taxes or cover the minimal expenses to maintain
the home and feed their farm animals (usually a cow or a goat
and chickens or other poultry).
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| Planned
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Achieved
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| ITo create and build
capacity in the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries
so that it can take part in the design and implementation of sector
policies to serve the most vulnerable rural sectors and ensure
greater coordination with other ministry projects and programmes.
To strengthen producer organizations.
To establish rural development round tables. The round tables
represent the local level in the identification, prioritization
and implementation of rural development actions and will be made
up of all interested stakeholders. They will be organized geographically
in such a way as to give preference to areas with higher concentrations
of rural poor and the greater presence of producer organizations
representing small producers and the rural poor.
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The rural development
office was created at the beginning of the project to coordinate
all development projects in Uruguay.
Throughout the country, 17 rural development round tables have
been established. Round tables include representatives of all
formal groups and institutions that are involved in local development.
The main task of the round tables is to approve the credit proposals
of beneficiary groups. Each round table has a technical adviser
who introduces the proposals during the meetings.
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Risk
management
| Uruguay’s
smallholders are virtually defenseless against fluctuations
on the international markets for agricultural inputs and commodities,
and this vulnerability is one of the main structural causes
of rural poverty in the country.
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| Planned
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Achieved
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| To support the already
existing Guarantee Fund. |
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A Guarantee Fund allows
access to credit in a sustainable manner for poor farmers that
are not able to get loans from banks. |
Rangeland resources
| Cattle
and sheep-raising in Uruguay is based on grazing animals in
large fenced pastures. Due to the poor land quality and the
intensive use of pasture by animals, rangeland erosion is a
problem in many areas. Several land-rotation systems have been
developed to prevent land erosion, but these methods are not
used in all places. |
| Planned
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|
Achieved
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| To provide credit
and small grants to farmer groups for rangeland improvement.
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The project has provided
small grants to three farmer groups for rangeland improvement.
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Livestock
health
Internal
and external parasites are common among both sheep and young
cattle, and drug resistance is a problem in many areas. The
last outbreak of foot and mouth disease occurred in Uruguay
in 2001. At the moment, the country has been declared by the
World Organization for Animal Health to be free of the disease,
but is still on a regime of obligatory vaccinations.
Animal husbandry practices among small farmers would need improvement,
and many small producers have expressed a need for technical
assistance in animal husbandry so as to increase the productivity
of their animals. |
Planned |
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Achieved |
To provide
credit and small grants to farmer groups so that they can improve
the health of their animals and their animal husbandry practices. |
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The project has provided
credit to 48 farmer groups so that they can obtain technical
assistance related to livestock activities. |
Lessons learned
- Farmers who exchange visits to larger and more developed farms
are successful in encouraging small producers to adapt new technologies.
- The formation of farmer groups has proved to be a successful way
to strengthen the position of individual farmers. To become well functioning,
farmer groups need good technical advisers who can guide them and
help them strengthen the teamwork among farmers. It is also very important
to provide training to farmers and to the technical advisers so that
they can work more effectively in groups.
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| Project information |
Total project cost: USD 24.5 million
Livestock cost (as a percentage of total): N.A.
Duration: The project was approved in December 2000,
and it is a six-year programme.
Area: The project area covers the whole country
Beneficiaries: The target group is estimated at roughly 43 000 families,
including some 33 000 small producers and 10 000 landless rural workers.
Over a proposed implementation period, the programme will benefit directly
some 10 000 families of small producers and rural poor people whose family
income levels are below the poverty line. An additional 5 000 families
will benefit from financial services and other support activities; these
families currently receive support from separate projects in other thematic
areas.
The programme has three main types of target group families:
(a) Rural, marginal producer families. Agriculture represents only a
part of this group’s source of family incomes. Since output is insufficient
to meet family subsistence requirements, one or more family members must
work temporarily or permanently off-farm or undertake other income-generating
activities. The families live in isolated conditions and rarely participate
in producer organizations. Migration, particularly among youth, is increasing.
At present, this group has little potential to improve and diversify farm
production and is, for the most part, working on poor agricultural soils.
(b) Landless rural families. This group consists of families of formerly
salaried agricultural workers or temporary salaried workers. Before Mercosur,
these families received salaries through large-scale farming operations
(mainly sugar cane). While many families subsequently emigrated to urban
centres, those remaining survive on social subsidies and temporary work
carried out by family members. There is a strong demand for accessible
alternative sources of income. This group is still the one most vulnerable
to urban migration.
(c) Rural families with commercial potential. These families depend largely
on farm incomes, and their agricultural activity relies on family labour.
The majority are landowners or settlers who engage in dairy production
or vegetable farming; recently, there has been some interest in fruit
and small livestock production. The levels of farm investment are generally
low owing to the lack of capital. This group has the potential to improve
and diversify in farm production, and this represents the best opportunity
for increasing production and intensifying markets that require a high
quality, quantity and reliability of production. The impact of technical,
marketing and organizational improvements at the farm level could be high. |
| References |
Project Appraisal Report, August 2000
Report and Recommendation of the President to the Executive Board,
December 2000
Segundo Informe de Avance, Unidad de Seguimiento y Evaluacion, July
2002
Evaluacion sobre metodologia, impacto y sostenibilidad de la asistencia
tecnica de los programas del MGAP/UPCT, January 2003 |
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