An evaluation of the CARDI/USAID small farm multiple cropping systems research project

Special evaluation covers the period through 4/8/82 and is based on document review, site visits, and interviews with project participants. Although the project's ambitious objectives have not been fulfilled and many of the expected results not obtained, a sound infrastructure for farm-level applied research and extension has emerged, as farming systems research (FSR) has been readily embraced by farmers and has become the focal point of participating countries' agricultural research programs. Joint country/Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) teams have been established in 7 countries and some 25 farmer cooperators selected on each of the islands. CARDI/FSR staff have become aware of the complex farming systems in the region, a number of production constraints have been discovered, on-farm adaptive problem-solving research has been initiated, and some observation trials conducted. Also, various workshops and seminars have been conducted for research personnel. Progress has been hampered by a number of implementation problems, however. The project has been spread too thin, geographically, to be effective. Interterritorial communication has been poor and true interdisciplinary interaction among core CARDI personnel not achieved. Overemphasis on data collection and detailed analysis, coupled with a lack of flexibility, has led to a slow cautious approach to field trials. In fact, the project has collected too much data, too rapidly, about a subsample of farmers which represents neither a homogenous group nor a random sample. The project's ad hoc exploratory interventions (7-15 per country) represent constraints identified through informal observation, not during the data analysis process. Thus, to date, project research has added little knowledge about or had little impact on farming systems. Included in this evaluation are analyses of crop and animal production in the Eastern Caribbean and of CARDI's organizational and functional patterns. Detailed recommendations for Phase II of the project address these and other issues.