INERA support project; midterm evaluation report, participatory research

Evaluation covers the period 7/79-2/81 and is based on document review, a site visit, and interviews with project personnel. The results of the modern farmer experimental plots are inconclusive. Planting corn in rows produced greater yields, but soy and dry beans did equally well whether planted traditionally or in rows. The major advantage of the program was the farmers' easy access to seeds. The attempt to raise chicken and rabbits has run into problems due to disease (several rabbits have died of syphilis), and lack of vaccines and feed. Efforts to use foyers (groups of women selected by their villages) to train women in nutrition and vegetable growing failed due to the use of ill-advised recipes and untried seeds, respectively; INERA was unable to assist in either case. Learning to sew -- which was clearly the women's first priority -- seems of marginal importance to the project. Given the importance of women in the area to agricultural production, the extension team ought to concentrate its efforts on helping women to become better producers. There has been no effort at systematic collection of data on labor inputs to different crops, sex division of crops and labor, intercropping systems, and land tenure arrangements despite their critical importance to agricultural research. Long-term training, perhaps the project's most important aspect, has been hindered by lack of equipment, poor language skills of U.S. technicians, difficulties in recruiting and retaining counterparts, a dispute between A.I.D. and INERA on responsibility for housing costs, the plant pathologist's administrative responsibilities as chief of party, and the lack of interaction between the project's technical and extension components. If training is to be effective, it is necessary that the laboratory equipment arrive, English instruction continue, the U.S. staff learn French, and INERA solve the counterpart housing problem.