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).

Planned

Achieved

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.

  

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.

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.

Planned

Achieved

To support the already existing Guarantee Fund.

  

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

Achieved

To provide credit and small grants to farmer groups for rangeland improvement.

  

The project has provided small grants to three farmer groups for rangeland improvement.

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

  

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.

 

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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