Niamey Department development project : managing rural development with minimal evidence

The large-scale efforts which are frequently undertaken to obtain this information are often costly and cumbersome to execute and may produce a large amount of information that is inconsequential to project operations. Moreover, much of the essential information generated by these efforts often arrives too late to be of use in making key project decisions. This paper uses the case of the Niamey Department Development Project in the Republic of Niger to illustrate how a minimal amount of easily obtainable data can be adequate to implement a new project or effectively manage an ongoing program. Drawing upon his own experience with this project, the author describes how this simple, common-sense approach was used to assist the administration of this complex regional development project. Many insights gained by the application of this approach as well as the problems involved in collecting farm-level data under uncertain agricultural conditions in a resource-poor country are related. This approach is recommended for areas where little concrete information is available, especially in those situations which call for an inexpensive means of quickly identifying principal farming practices and important constraints affecting major cropping systems. (Author abstract, modified)