PL-480 TITLE I/III 1979/1980 ANNUAL REPORT

Evaluation, attached to a PES Facesheet (PD-AAI-309-A1), covers the period 10/79-10/80 and consists of an Annual Report by the Honduran Institute for Agricultural Marketing (IHMA). During the 1979/80 crop season, 13,164 metric tons were received. For the 1980/81 season, 2,449 of the 10,430 MT"s agreed to have been received to date. Funds generated from wheat sales during the project"s first half totalled 3,928,105.66 Lempipas and were used by IHMA for grain purchases, staff training, technical assistance, installation repair, operating costs, and new equipment. During 1979, IHMA increased its storage capacity by 250,000 quintales to 1,780,000 quintales, and now has the capacity to supply the national market for a period of 3 months. In addition, IHMA installed drying equipment and constructed offices, guardhouses, and loading platforms at seven grain centers. During 1980, IHMA initiated a wide variety of improvements, e.g., the construction of toilets and septic tanks, at seven granaries, along with improvements such as the building of a machine shop at the Kennedy Terminal Plant in Tegucigalpa, and awarded a contract for remodelling the Puerto Cortes Rice Mill. To improve the operation of its grain price stabilization program, IHMA has undertaken several measures, including direct intervention in the purchase-sale of grains in the market and creation of new guaranty prices to increase farm income and enable farmers to plant high-priority basic grains. To further a basic grains program, IHMA has also assisted in reducing basic grain price fluctuations and will expand its storage capacity by an additional 453,200 quintales, handle inputs and agricultural implements to support farmers, and, beginning 12/80, develop a program of Storage Warehouses. Other achievements during the past year included training courses for farmers and rural extensionists by IHMA"s Extension Service and the conducting of a pre-feasibility study to expand the range of the agricultural products handled by IHMA.