Burkina Faso - Agricultural Research

 Agricultural Research Report No: ; Type: Report/Evaluation Memorandum ; Country: Burkina Faso; Region: Africa; Sector: Research; Major Sector: Agriculture; ProjectID: P000274 The Burkina Faso Agricultural Research Project, supported by Credit 1896-BUR for US$17.9 million, was approved in FY88 and closed on December 31, 1996, two years and nine months later than planned. The credit was fully disbursed. Parallel operations were conducted by the United States Agency for International Development, the Royal Netherlands Government and the European Union. The Implementation Completion Report (ICR) was prepared by the Africa Regional Office. The Borrower’s contribution, and comments on the ICR, are included as appendices. The objectives of the project were to strengthen and consolidate the capacity of the national agricultural research system to plan execute and evaluate research programs relevant to Government agricultural policies and responsive to farmers’ needs; to improve linkages between individual research programs by emphasizing multi- disciplinary, systems-oriented research; and to strengthen linkages between research and extension programs. These objectives were supported by four components: i) institutional strengthening; ii) support to research programs; iii) training and technical assistance; and iv) civil works, vehicles, equipment and supplies. The project largely achieved its objectives with some delays and deficiencies. Substantial progress was made in strengthening national capacity to plan and implement research programs, although there was insufficient balancing of human resources and agreed priorities among programs, and there was minimal participation by users in the planning process. Plans for the infrastructure components were modified several times, leading to delays, but most planned works were completed. However, the quality of works was poor in many instances and this is likely to lead to a significant maintenance burden. Progress in linking agricultural research more closely to extension and research users was less than intended but did improve towards the end of the project. The project did result in yield gains for adopters of technical packages for a number of smallholder crops which could have been used as the basis for developing measures of cost efficiency and effectiveness. Although the project was aimed at developing linkages with research users, and the technical assistance included an agricultural economist with responsibility for monitoring, the ICR provides no information on the actual or potential role of monitoring and evaluation in planning and implementing the research program. The ICR rates outcome as satisfactory, institutional development as substantial, sustainability as uncertain, and Bank performance as satisfactory. The Operations and Evaluation Department (OED) endorses these ratings. The ICR draws some familiar lessons, notably that for projects seeking to establish linkages between research institutions and research users, such as the extension service and farmers groups, it is not sufficient merely to establish memoranda of understanding—more permanent linkages must be discussed, planned, implemented and institutionalized and may have to be specifically funded in such projects. The project also suggests that opportunities for adding value from agro-processing may be as important as gains from agronomic research. Hence, to maximize agricultural research gains for smallholder farmers, payoffs from production research should routinely be assessed along with potential investment in post-harvest research. The ICR is satisfactory, although it could have been improved if the issues relating to monitoring and evaluation had been addressed more directly. No audit is planned.