Togo : cereals trade liberalization program (693-0229) PAAD

The program will be implemented by the Office of Agricultural Surveys and Statistics, the Office of Development Studies, and a cereals export licensing commission to be established. A cash grant of $7 million will be disbursed in two equal tranches (FY86 and FY87), conditioned initially on the GOT"s legalization of maize exports, approval of an appropriately timed and broad scheme for issuing export licenses to private traders, and establishment of guidelines strictly limiting the export activities of TOGOGRAIN, a parastatal, to maintenance of national food security stocks. The second tranche will be contingent upon continued satisfactory performance by the GOT in these and related areas. At the same time, an additional $850,000 grant will fund U.S. technical assistance in: creating the licensing mechanism; improving the GOT"s crop forecasting capabilities and agricultural marketing information services; and regulating TOGOGRAIN"s food security stock management so that significant private domestic and export cereals trade is workable. The local currency equivalent of the grant will be used to (1) capitalize an intermediate credit facility for farmer groups and cereals exporting merchants, which will be used to relieve the storage and transportational constraints endemic to the cereals trade; (2) provide the necessary data management; and (3) provide funding for a World Bank road maintenance project to begin in 1987. In addition to providing incentives for increased cereal production, the program will further the structural adjustment processes agreed upon by the World Bank and the GOT and will immediately ameliorate Togo"s balance of payments problem.