Agricultural planning and institutional development

The Ministry of Agriculture"s (MOA) Agricultural Sector Planning Office (OSPA) will coordinate implementation of the project, which focuses on agricultural policy analysis (APA), information collection and dissemination, sector management, human resource development, and private sector participation. An APA group with linkages to the private sector will be established in the MOA to prepare short- and long-term analyses of agricultural policy issues (training for 6 Ph.D."s will be funded) and support will be provided to a similar entity in the Ministry of Economics, Finance, and Commerce. OSPA will use computerized tracking systems and a program of impact evaluations to assess policy effectiveness. To provide the APA unit with needed data, the National Statistics Institute will launch a socioeconomic survey of 5,000 rural households, the MOA"S Sectoral Statistics Office (OSE) will construct an Area Sampling Frame to permit collection of accurate crop and livestock production data (the adequacy of these data will be reviewed by an intra-MOA committee), and the National Meteorological and Hydrological Service will collect and disseminate data from some 100 weather stations, including 28 operated by Peru"s Civil Aeronautics Corporation. An OSE unit will be established to assess the impact of weather on crop production. To improve MOA sector management, an intraministerial committee and a special permanent position in the Vice Minister"s Office will be created. Focus will be on developing a management policy framework, improving intra-MOA coordination, and helping the MOA"s Office of Rationalization (OGR) to assist other MOA offices - especially the decentralized National Institute for Development of the Agricultural Frontier - with management problems. Specific OGR targets will include management information systems, emergency preparedness plans, and a long-term personnel management strategy (especially regarding salary levels). Further, the National Institute for Agricultural Research and Extension will be strengthened in areas such as financial policy/management, internal control systems, and organizational structure. To institutionalize an MOA personnel development program, a Technical Training Division, staffed and managed by the National Agrarian University (UNA), will be established. Further, A.I.D. will finance U.S. training of 4 Ph.D."s and 11 M.S."s and in-country graduate and technical training for over 550 professionals (including 70 M.S."s). A wide-ranging program to strengthen the UNA will focus on fellowships to graduate students (75 M.S."s) and faculty (75 M.S."s), a technical English-language laboratory, and institutional linkages. A.I.D. will also finance 15 M.S."s to help establish an APA unit in the University of the Pacific. Finally, an APA unit will be established in the National Agrarian Organization, which, along with other private institutions, will conduct sector and production analytical studies and share the results with policymakers.