New-lands settlement and regional development : the case of San Julian, Bolivia

External evaluation, conducted shortly after the projects" completion, covers the period 1975-10/84 and is based on review of land records and interviews with settlers and key informants. Thus far, the San Julian colonization program, which successfully transferred a highland farming population to the subtropical lowlands, has fared better than most resettlement schemes. Settlers have overcome the stresses of pioneering, and there is some evidence that they are now ready to move beyond subsistence production. However, there is also a real possibility that economic growth will not be realized and the settlement will fail. Most settlers grow staple crops and provide their own inputs; few have tried to grow high-value cash crops. As a result, there are almost no input suppliers in San Julian and only a handful of forward production linkages (e.g., a rice mill); other off-farm services (stores, schools, etc.) are only incipient as settler incomes do not generate much demand for even basic trades or services. Off-farm employment is virtually nil. None of San Julian"s 39 nucleos has a functioning agricultural credit program, indicating that settlers have no incentive to risk debts in order to increase farm productivity. Slowness in land titling also limits settlers" opportunities for credit (and hence maintains their dependence on government and PVO resources). Insufficient potable water is the singlemost factor limiting San Julian"s economic growth and, possibly, its future as a settlement. Other problems include lack of road maintenance, predatory burning of forests, and poor health status, the latter due to economic conditions (once A.I.D. support ended, settlers" incomes could not support health services) and to the projects" failure to train female health workers (women were neglected in general, as the projects wrongly assumed that the colonists would be young, single males). Only 5 nucleos have functioning clinics. Democratic community organization, on the other hand, is very strong; land sales, for example, must be approved by fellow settlers. This strong control no doubt accounts for the settlement"s resiliency under harsh conditions and for its low level of settler displacement, and it demonstrates that the colonists have the organizational strength to develop regional fiscal linkages and to administer the resources which potentially can be generated, on- and off-farm, and which are so badly needed to alleviate problems in health, infrastructure, etc. Recommendations are included.