SHIRE CONSOLIDATION

closed

The Shire Valley Agriculture Consolidation Project will intensify the provision of agricultural extension services; establish an irrigated seed multiplication farm and an afforestation program; provide production credit; improve livestock extension services; expand the fisheries development program; improve village health facilities and potable water supply; and extend farm to market road networks. It would provide social and infrastructural services to about 70,000 families and introduce improved farming practices, which would enable about 40,000 smallholder families in the Shire Valley to increase their annual farm income from about US$75 to US$120. The major risks facing the project are a recurrence of extreme drought conditions experienced during the implementation of the second phase, the performance of some recently developed project cropping packages under prevailing farming conditions, the availability of an adequate number of qualified agricultural extension staff and their ability to effectively implement the training and visit system, and the danger of new outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease.