RURAL DEVT III (ZOU)

closed

The principal objectives of the Zou Province Rural Development Project are to improve the level of rural incomes and to increase production of export and food crops through strengthening and support of institutions, integrated with applied research, seed production, extension, cooperative training, and social services. The project will be implemented over a five-and-one-half year period. It is expected to reach some 38,000 farm families (about 50% of the Province's total), and to generate an incremental production of 5,700 t of cotton, 5,200 t of maize, 4,000 t of groundnuts, 3,300 t of cowpeas, 400 t of paddy, and 200 t of tobacco. The project's principal quantifiable benefit would derive from the incremental production of cotton, food crops and livestock products. Unquantifiable benefits include better financial management of Government institutions, enhancement of their capability to plan and implement development activities, and the establishment of a firm basis for adaptive food crop and cotton research, and for seed production.