Green revolution Africa - style : toward defining a technology for rural productivity in Togo, West Africa -- the Zio River economic development project, midterm evaluation

Mid-term evaluation covers the period 8/84-3/87. APP"s intensive approach to farmer training, credit, and management training has resulted in real gains in yields, income, and skills as well as changes in traditional economic behavior. APP has successfully integrated applied agronomic research, extension, credit training, and a small business program in ways that make it possible for small farmers to adopt modernizing changes - a rarity in Africa where these four services almost never function together successfully. On a continent where agricultural extension systems are weak and do not treat farming as a business, the Zio Project deserves serious consideration as a model (or the beginnings of one) for transferring the benefits of modern technology - both production and management - to traditional producers on terms they can control. The biggest "pro" of APP"s integrated approach to rural economic development is that in two years" time it has established the possibility of more profitable small farm agriculture in the region. People now know that they can intensively raise multiple crops, produce food crops of higher value, and effectively utilize modern inputs, practices, credit, and training institutions. The "con" is that only the possibility of a modern agricultural economy has been established: much remains to be done. The project"s future viability will depend on its ability to serve larger numbers of farmers more cost-efficiently. Having both the "quantity" and the "quality" for this kind of transformation at the human, enterprise, local economic, and institutional levels is difficult to accomplish. Another bright spot is that other rural development agencies (e.g., the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, the Ministry of Rural Development) are sharing the technical benefits of this project, and in turn helping to shape APP as an institution capable of serving a variety of public and private sector institutions. Two questions of technology transfer are (1) how to replicate APP"s systems approach that combines producer training with credit and small business development, and (2) how to deliver APP training and credit at a more affordable cost. APP faces many risks in building itself as a sustainable institution, as was dramatically apparent in 12/86 when its mother agency, Partnership for Productivity, went out of business, and A.I.D. switched its project contract to to CARE. Local APP staff continue in place, and CARE is conscious of the need for stable continuity. (Author abstract, modified)