Project completion report : farming systems research project 621-0156

Due to funding limitations, TA from the Consortium for International Development (CID) was reduced in 9/85 and project support of food crop research was eliminated. This and other factors (e.g., inadequate counterpart staffing) reduced project progress. The project has a mixed record. (1) Of 10 researchers sent for U.S. Ph.D. and M.Sc. training, 1 has completed training and returned; the FAO will finance the remaining training costs of the other 9. More positively, excellent workshops, seminars, and on-the-job training for TARO FSR staff, commodity researchers, and extensionists has created a small, competent group which will be a valuable resource in future FSR development. Commodity researchers in particular have become convinced of the value of FSR. (2) CID efforts to improve TARO research management were nullified by the dismissal of the TARO Director and other top staff shortly before project termination. Efforts to establish and strengthen ties to other agricultural organizations, both domestic and international proved more successful. (3) TARO has partially completed targeted land development at Ilonga Research Station. However, funds for this effort are depleted and no provision has been made to secure additional funds. Contracted construction of 19 other facilities at Ilonga (laboratories, workshops, storage facilities, and administration buildings), while delayed, should be completed by the end of CY86. The project did introduce the FSR approach, but on too limited a scale and for too short a time to significantly improve the research program - the use of FSR as a technology development and extension strategy was tested in 2 rather than 3 agro-ecological zones, and instead of 18,000 farmers in 15 districts using new technology, some 500 farmers in 3 districts are using at least one technology package. As for the future, it is uncertain as to how long the Government will provide recurrent cost support for TARO"s FSR Unit, and while TARO"s human resource base seems fairly strong, there is no assurance that the U.S. participants will work with TARO upon return (all are expected to do so, although perhaps not specifically with the FSR Unit). Also, only a small fraction of TARO"s staff are agricultural economists and none are social scientists. In sum, while TARO will most likely continue to sustain a national food crop/adaptive research program, institutionalization of the FSR approach remains in doubt.