Administrative report for the small farm credit profitability and repayment project

Final contractor evaluation by Colorado State University (CSU) covers the period 9/77-9/8l. CSU and Ohio State University (OSU) jointly implemented the project with the former conducting field activities in the Dominican Republic and the latter in Honduras. CSU and OSU first conducted a literature review which highlighted the need for research on credit institutions" operational data needs and also resulted in CSU"s publication of eight papers, including a major bibliography on credit data collection and analysis. An enterprise budget system was then designed by CSU and by the Government of the Dominican Republic"s Agricultral Bank and Secretariat of Agriculture (SEA). SEA employees prepared 101 crop enterprise budgets covering variable costs for annual crops planted alone and describing the technology employed (e.g., in terms of land preparation, water source, input use) for eight regions of the country. As SEA and Bank staffs" skills grow, the methodology will be expanded to cover fixed costs, perennial crops, and intercropping. The budget forms were well-received and were being used for training purposes. Based on OSU"s Honduran work, a farm recordkeeping experiment was begun using two versions of a record book to track all farm activities, expenses, and income over a complete crop cycle and also to provide a complementary source of data for preparing budgets. Other CSU project outputs included an Agriculture Bank credit policies and procedures manual; studies on credit files and loan delinquency; plans for an improved client classification system; formal and informal training on the methodology and administration of budget systems for over 1l2 SEA and Bank personnel; and a graduate-level seminar on agricultural credit. The project demonstrated that accurate and reliable enterprise budgets and farm records can be produced in a developing country in a cost-effective manner. However, additional time and support are needed to ensure that data collection systems are integrated and supported over time by host governments.