Project Interim Evaluation

The project involved 26 small-scale irrigation schemes, covering nearly 5,000 hectares in four different areas of Haiti: Port-de-Paix (6), Saint Marc (11), Petit-Goâve (5) and Côteaux (4).

Water Users’ Associations (WUAs) were established in each scheme and have the potential to assume self-management, although a support mechanism for WUAs will initially be needed in the second phase of the project. By mid-2002, approximately 2,000 hectares had been rehabilitated and new cropping techniques likely to bring about a sustainable increase in yields broadly disseminated.

Over 2,000 farmers had attended training seminars on how to manage the irrigation schemes and ways to improve crop techniques. Stores selling inputs (such as seeds, fertilisers, harnesses for draught animals and mechanised ploughing equipment) managed by farmers were set up in two regions, providing autonomous structures for the supply and distribution of inputs.

The project made a significant contribution towards defining sector policy and up-dating approaches to hydro-agricultural development. Physical infrastructure, however, was often prioritised over development activities and development initiatives suffered further from delays in putting infrastructure into place and from a lack of consultation with the producers.