Comprehensive review : agricultural economics 211(d) grant

Special evaluation covers the period 6/72-3/76 and is based on a team review of project documents and a visit to VSC. The 211 (d) grant has been the main factor in initiating and maintaining at VSC a graduate (Masters) program - basic to an increased VSC research capacity - in economics with emphasis on economic development and agricultural economics. Also, since the grant, VSC has internationalized its undergraduate program and is considering merging the schools of economics and agricultural economics. Grant funds are currently supporting eight undergraduate and seven graduate students. The grant's central focus was to allow VSC's Bureau of Economic Research and Development (BERD) to expand from domestic to overseas research. Since the grant, BERD's full-time faculty have increased from one to five. Still, short-term consultancies have been limited, although two more BERD faculty will be hired shortly. No possibility for long-term consultancies is apparent. Nonetheless, BERD has not moved rapidly enough beyond domestic research (in south central Virginia) to determine the relevancy of this research to A.I.D., although BERD's interest areas - agriculture, marketing, management, and manpower and production - are of special interest to A.I.D. Only in the last year has BERD established a formal LDC linkage, with Ghana's University of Science and Technology in Ghana. Collaboration with other 211 (d) grant institutions has been less than expected. It is recommended that: the grant be extended 2 years to allow VSC to develop further its project-related capabilities; A.I.D. (especially the Bureau for Africa) become more involved in guiding VSC research and examine the training possibilities offered by VSC's domestic research programs; VSC refine its work plans and develop a logframe for the current grant's final year; and that sustained collaboration be encouraged among the academic institutions, A.I.D. offices, other donor agencies, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture involved in international economic and especially agricultural development.