Audit report : agricultural commodity systems project; USAID/Costa Rica

Audit report covers the period 3/78-6/80 and is based on document review, site visits, and interviews with project personnel. Due largely to the GOCR"s 1/79 austerity program and its late approval of the 1980 budget, progress has been limited. The project"s key component, aimed at improving farm management techniques for 4,000 farmers, has lacked sufficient MOA personnel and counterpart funds for the five Agricultural Regional Centers. Transportation and control over project costs have also been inadequate. Research, the project"s second main component, is also behind schedule. In efforts to introduce improved plant varieties, three experimental stations have been established, but most 1980 work plans have not been developed; no equipment or seed trees have been purchased; and a worldwide search for new plant materials is yet to begin. Moreover, only one research and development contract has been awarded, with two others being processed; market, crop, and administrative studies are just beginning; only two of 10 pilot marketing activities have been approved; and none of the 60 subprojects planned for five regions have begun. Most 1980 work will have to be reprogrammed, and it may be another year before measurable results are achieved. In other activities, the credit program, the project"s costliest component, will only begin in earnest early in 1981 and may have to run until 12/83 or longer; staffing of the MOA"s Implementation and Marketing Units is at last underway, thus ensuring coordination of the project in the near future; an unrealistic MOA approach has seriously delayed long-term training, with possible serious long-run harm to the project; training of 200 MOA extensionists is behind schedule, although instructional materials for 12 farm products have been developed; and results of 970 completed surveys (of 2,000 made) of small farmers will soon be published. It is recommended that the MOA"s Implementation Unit prepare definite plans to implement the research component and to procure physical inputs needed for the project, and that the MOA expedite both participant and extensionist training.