NE SAVANNAH RURAL DE

closed

The proposed project is the first phase of an integrated rural development program for the North-East Savannah, a sparsely populated, isolated and hitherto neglected region. It would consist of three agricultural production components aimed at both increasing marketable foodcrop production and testing new farming systems; a large applied research and field trials component; and an infrastructure component (improvement of rural roads and water supply). The project would also include a component at the national level aimed at strengthening the Government's planning capacity in the agricultural sector. There are technical risks that the research would not yield acceptable results, socioeconomic risks that the population would not be responsive to changes, and commercial risks due to the remoteness of the area. The research, training, and rural roads components included under the project are designed to alleviate these risks.