AGRICULTURAL SERVICES AND PRODUCER ORGANIZATIONS PROJECT

closed

The Agricultural Services and Producer Organizations Project (First Phase) will establish an institutional framework, to improve delivery of agricultural services to producers, by supporting the decentralization of core functions in the Ministry of Rural Development (MDR), promoting private sector participation, and empowering producer organizations. The project components will: 1) support the transfer of non-basic public service functions to autonomous private entities, by divesting/sharing activities between public and private operators, such as veterinary services, commercialization of improved seeds, management of slaughter houses, and/or provision of technical and management services to cooperatives. A new decentralized organizational structure of the MDR will be designed, to realign internal policies, and management systems, strengthen the regulatory framework, and, provide special rural training programs; 2) strengthen the National Agricultural Research System's (NARS) institutional capacity, and, upgrade its scientific research capacity. Applied agricultural research sub-projects will be financed, and/or co-financed with other donors, while demand-driven agricultural research/development subprojects will be competitively funded; 3) improve sustainability of the National Agricultural Extension system, through a progressive decentralization to the regions, to support research and development, training, and human resources management activities, and, pilot extension contracting to private providers; and, 4) support producer organizations, by providing training, technical assistance and management advice, as well as communication programs to disseminate relevant technical, economic, and organizational information.