RURAL DEVELOPMENT

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The Guayape Regional Development Project for Honduras will be the first phase of a Guayape River Watershed scheme for development of the entire Valley. The objective of this first phase is to provide an integrated package of assistance and services for about 1,200 small farmers and 70 agrarian reform settlements with over 1,500 families in selected areas of the Valley. This package will include investment and production credit, extension services, machinery pool services, small scale irrigation schemes for some settlements, rural road improvement, and improved research facilities. The project will include technical assistance and training for the project unit and preparation of an agricultural project for possible future Bank lending. The risks associated with the project are possible lack of farmer acceptance of the technological packages, and weak institutional support because of scarcity of qualified personnel and poor coordination between responsible agencies. In order to deal with these potential problems, a modest sized project has been designed with a project unit which will have adequate staff and authority to carry out the project, and the technology to be utilized will be based on the traditional pattern of farming activities in the project area.