Mid-term evaluation for the agroforestry outreach project

Special evaluation covers the 2-year period to 9/83, and is based on document review, site visits, and interviews with USAID/H, Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), Operation Double Harvest (ODH), CARE, and other personnel. Overall progress has been good. Focusing on small-scale, village-level agroforestry activities and with flexible, high-quality staffs, the PADF and CARE SP's have been most successful. PADF's 3 regional extension teams have helped 42 organizations (with 160 PADF subgrants) to establish 19 seedling nurseries (hardwood nurseries have been unexpectedly profitable) and plant 4,022,000 (vs. a 4-year target of 3 million) trees. Promising research on small-scale tree plantations has also been conducted. PADF staff emphasis on tree planting has limited development of the planned Agroforestry Resource Center. After a slow start, the CARE SP has established 6 nurseries and through its 2 extension teams helped 3,128 (vs. a 4-year target of 3,500) farmers plant 1,173,000 trees in 2 northwest regions. CARE has had most success planting on individually-owned property with owner participation. Although CARE has had difficulty in identifying qualified mid-level Haitian staff for training, Haitians have been effectively trained to participate in day-to-day agroforestry activities. CARE's village animators are paid a flat salary, a more successful arrangement than PADF's piece rate payment. Both PADF and CARE are phasing out farmer incentive payments (interest is sufficent without them) and are either self-sufficient, or nearly so, in seedling production. Although the ODH SP has established a large-scale experimental tree nursery and produced an important seedling container system (winstrip), its seedling production output has lacked quality and reliability. Inadequate technical staff and flawed research methods (among other problems) have also hampered development of ODH's 7 large-scale tree farms and of its research component. Key recommendations are to continue the small-scale CARE/PADF approach to planting trees, with a review of ODH's large-scale concept and a possible scale-down of ODH funding.