EVALUATION OF PROJECT 538-T-006; CARIBBEAN REGIONAL INTEGRATED AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT (SPECIAL EVALUATION)

This special contracted evaluation, attached to a PES (PD-AAG-597-A1), covers the period 6/76-9/80, is based in part on field reports (included in an annex) to Belize, Antigua, St. Vincent, and Grenada. The project's terminal disbursement date (TDD) cannot be met nor can the project be carried out as planned. Responsibility for this must be shared by A.I.D. and cooperating Caribbean entities, especially the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). Before loan approval, A.I.D. failed to identify or resolve basic issues such as integrating the four components -- agricultural production credit (APC), inputs, marketing, and feeder roads (FR) -- on whose interdependence the project design was based. After project initiation, issues such as the use of force account construction for feeder roads were left unresolved longer than necessary. CDB failed to appoint a project manager with clear responsibility and, except for St. Lucia, did not appoint Farm Improvement Officers for APC schemes. There is no record that A.I.D. recalled CDB to its commitments. A final problem is that the project is quite complex and has an unrealistically tight schedule, which has led to a disappointing record for loan disbursements. To date, CDB has committed $2.163 million for APC programs in Antigua, Belize, St. Lucia, and Grenada (of which $626,000 has been disbursed to farmers by development finance corporations) and has committed $2.325 million to feeder road projects in Antigua and St. Vincent. No commitments have been made for inputs or marketing. The planned regional agricultural supply project in the Windward Islands has not been implemented. Because of CDB's importance for the area's development, evaluators recommend that A.I.D. extend the TTD 2-3 years after negotiating a new, detailed schedule and implementation plan with CDB. Such a new plan, which is spelled out in the evaluation's final section, should stress the few components in the few countries where spade work already done augurs well for speedy implementation.