Hillside agriculture project : final evaluation

The project was highly successful in achieving its objective; under the auspices of 32 subprojects, perennial tree crop production was improved on 18,000 farms, or over 16,000 acres. These activities led to the return of small farmer production of cocoa and coffee -- Jamaica's traditional export crops -- after Hurricane Gilbert. However, while the strategic focus on introducing perennial tree crops permitted the project to reach many farmers, it also compelled the project to ignore other kinds of activities (program sustainability, involvement of women and youth, agricultural product marketing, socioeconomic monitoring, and development of a management information system) that are just as important to the success of hillside agriculture. The project broadened its scope to address these issues after a mid-term evaluation, but without the commitment of the project team or the resources needed to pursue the new project design, achievement of the new objectives was mixed. Some of the numerous lessons learned from the project are as follows: (1) A large, decentralized effort such as this required independence from the traditional Ministry implementation mechanisms, which can be slow, cumbersome, and subject to arbitrary decisions about resource allocation. A Project Coordinating Committee can be effective in linking a complex project with USAID and host government officials without relinquishing control of it to a single host government agency, as well as in preserving a single line of accountability. (2) The integration of perennial trees into hillside farming and natural resource management systems contributes to the control of erosion and provides watershed protection. Further, the integration of a diverse mixture of these trees along with improved management practices helps to increase production and minimize risk for limited resource farmers. Overall, hillside agricultural development should focus on the whole farming system, promoting annual and perennial tree crop production under mixed cropping patterns. (3) It is doubtful that the large input subsidies were needed to attract farmer participation. Many Jamaican farmers are willing to invest in the production of perennial tree crops even if it requires their financial contribution. Further, farmers are also willing to pay for access to marketing and input delivery services. (4) The sustainability afforded by community participation has a cost. A project must work with existing local institutions or devote resources to facilitate community development. The time and resources devoted to community development will delay and/or reduce the other outputs which the project can be expected to achieve. (5) The project's focus on tree crop production to the exclusion of agricultural product marketing and post-harvest activities excluded women, who traditionally have primary responsibility for these activities, from the project.