Global : post harvest grain systems evaluation

Evaluation covers 9/80-3/88 and is based on document review and interviews with staff of FFGI, USAID/Costa Rica, and USAID/Belize, and with LDC cooperators. FFGI has built an excellent reputation based on its highly qualified professional staff and 20 years of continuous work in the field. While most FFGI efforts are oriented toward public sector agencies, its recent work in Costa Rica and Belize in guiding the privatization of marketing board operations is a commendable example of assistance to the private sector. Further, FFGI"s work, given its depth of outreach, is more likely to achieve permanent results than are more fragmented efforts. However, the many funding reductions which FFGI has had to accommodate threaten these achievements. The possibility that Mission buy-ins may make up for some of the shortfall must be balanced by the variability of such funding and work. FFGI is, to a degree, isolated. Networking, especially collaboration with other S&T agricultural research programs, should be expanded and efforts should be made to form stronger links with the international agricultural research centers, particularly to strengthen postharvest considerations in the CGIAR crop breeding programs. Similarly, further attention should be given to the reporting of FFGI accomplishments, through case studies, annual reports, public relations materials for LDC audiences, and a newsletter for former students and other sector professionals. With regard to institutionalization, more attention should be given to involvement with Mississippi State University and the Government of Honduras in the proposed international seed and grain center in Honduras. Such a center could significantly reinforce and expand FFGI"s research, training, and technology transfer capabilities. Other needs are for FFGI to: develop a system of ongoing internal program evaluation; initiate further studies to establish the size, location, and timing of losses and to guide research into cost-effective preventive measures; and continue to expand its Post Harvest Documentation Service (PHDS), while finding means to cooperate with a proposed FAO Asian database on postharvest losses. Lastly, an increase in A.I.D. core funding is critical to FFGI"s future success. More cuts would mean loss of activities, and ultimately, possible program elimination. The project teaches: continuity of financial support is crucial; buy-ins are not appropriate for providing a high proportion of support to professional organizations; a critical mass of assistance in a given country is essential to institutionalization.