Food, agriculture, and rural markets (FARM) project mid-term evaluation report

The project was designed to deliver rapid economic benefits to smallholder farmers by increasing production, improving access to markets as surpluses increased and improving the capacities of the private and public sectors to support market-led agriculture. The project works directly and intensively with farmer-based organizations (FBOs) to disseminate inputs, knowledge and services aimed at increasing production. It concurrently works to link farmers to traders and teach both groupsthe business skills necessary to operate effectively. Finally, through training and support for developing agricultural policy, it builds public- and private-sector capacities to support market-led agricultural growth.USAID commissioned the mid-term performance evaluation of the FARM Project to assess its current performance and to make programmatic recommendations for improving performance in the remaining years of the project. Specifically, the evaluation addressed seven questions focused broadly on: (1) the extent to which the project had achieved targets; (2) cost-efficiency; (3) contribution to USAID intermediate results; and (4) prospects for sustainability, and (5) sensitivity. (Excerpt, modified)