Area food and market development

A Project Implementation Unit (PIU), composed of expatriates and personnel from Zaire"s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DOA), will coordinate implementation by 10-15 such organizations, to be called intermediate management organizations (IMO"s). Activities to strengthen IMO development capacities will include: (1) training, mostly short-term and in-country (PIU counterparts will also be trained); (2) creation of permanent positions for rural development and agronomy in each IMO; and (3) the forging of ongoing linkages between IMO"s and central development organizations such as the Study Center for Social Action (CEPAS) and the Professional Technical Institute of Kikwit (ITPK). To increase production of cassava and other food crops and thereby encourage transition from an itinerant to a sustainable sedentary farming system, IMO"s will disseminate improved crop and soil management practices and improved varieties to small farmers (mostly women), working through existing agricultural agents or through project-trained village extensionists. IMO"s may also serve as demonstration and seed multiplication centers. An institution, probably the Technical Agriculture Institute of Kikwit (ITAK), will be upgraded to provide extensionist training. Secondly, IMO"s will explore and disseminate technologies to reduce cassava processing labor requirements and improve product quality, e.g., small mills, improved drying techniques, simple storage facilities, and bicycles or pushcarts for hauling produce. CEPAS will provide appropriate technology research and training, and ITPK will teach IMO staff and villagers how to maintain project-introduced equipment. To improve marketing: (1) transportation constraints will be identified under this project, and then addressed by the Agricultural Marketing Development Project (6600098); (2) if found necessary and feasible by a study being funded by the Small Farmer Market Access Project (9365313), a credit program for small and medium-sized traders will be funded and in conjunction a credit institution such a CBZO (a small savings co-op) will be upgraded. The project will include several pilot activities in Kikwit, especially to expand its role as a marketing center. Also, a variety of background, technical, and impact studies will be funded under this and related projects.