Audit of the Northeast rainfed agricultural development project in Thailand

Audit report covers the period 1981-6/85 and is based on site visits; review of USAID/T and Government of Thailand (GOT) documents, policies, and procedures; and interviews with USAID/T and GOT personnel and with farmers. The project has successfully initiated some project activities in the nine tambons and has improved coordination among the eight Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC) departments in the region. Several important issues must be addressed, however, before additional resources are committed to the project. (1) The direct beneficiary cost, high to begin with at $1,570 per farm family, has escalated to $9,430 as the target population was reduced from 10,000 to 1,000 farm families for greater project manageability. (2) Many of the technologies being developed duplicate those already adopted by regular MOAC programs or by the national Rural Poverty Area Program. (3) Project managers do not know whether project technologies will increase farmer income because cost-benefit ratios have not been analyzed as required; the GOT counterpart office has concentrated instead on a farmer recordkeeping system of little use to the project. (4) There is little prospect of replicating the project"s system of MOAC interdepartmental coordination without a strategy for doing so. (5) USAID/T is unable to evaluate progress or expenditures because the planning and information management systems required by A.I.D. have not been developed. It is recommended that USAID/T: (1) determine whether cost per beneficiary can be reduced to a reasonable level or else formally justify continuation of the project; (2) retain only those technologies which are not duplicated in national GOT programs and which have a high probability for replication elsewhere in Northeast Thailand; (3) develop and implement a strategy and plans to ensure the sustainability of the improvements in MOAC interdepartmental coordination; (4) ensure that the requirement for economic studies of project technologies is satisfied; and (5) establish a management information system.