Morocco - Agricultural Research and Extension

 Agricultural Research & Extension Report No: ; Type: Report/Evaluation Memorandum ; Country: Morocco; Region: Middle East And North Africa; Sector: Research; Major Sector: Agriculture; ProjectID: P005468 The Morocco Agricultural Research and Extension project, supported by Loan 3036-MOR for US$28 million equivalent, was approved in FY89 and closed on June 30, 1997, after a one-year extension of the research component. A total of US$5.97 million equivalent was canceled. Cofinancing of US$9.9 million was provided by KfW, GTZ and French bilateral assistance. The Implementation Completion Report (ICR) was prepared by the FAO/World Bank Cooperative Programme and finalized by the Middle East and North Africa Regional Office. The ICR includes summary comments on the research component of one of the borrower agencies which concur with the relevant part of the ICR assessment. No comments were received from the Cofinanciers. The project consisted of a five-year time slice of a ten-year development program for agricultural research and extension to improve agricultural productivity and production and to boost the incomes of farmers throughout the country. The research component included: (i) reorganization of the National Institute of Agricultural Research; (ii) development of programming by objectives for five research priority themes; (iii) decentralization of research, and development of two regional research centers; (iv) rehabilitation of 13 research farms; (v) establishment of eight research/development units; (vi) strengthening of the information documentation division; and (vii) training, technical assistance and fellowships. The extension component included: (i) establishment of an extension service at the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reform; (ii) introduction of a new national extension scheme based on the training and visit (T&V) system; (iii) improvement of research and extension linkages; (iv) training, technical assistance and fellowships; (v) reorganization of audio visual units for mass extension; and (vi) establishment of Monitoring and Evaluation Units. For the research side of the project, implementation followed the Staff Appraisal Report, and most of the planned decentralization, refurbishment and strengthening of the physical and human dimensions of research capacity went well and as planned. The extension side was not as successful, dogged by a variety of organizational problems. Several of the planned organizational structures were not established, and an extension service as such was never created, although specialist teams were created at the national level, and similar multidisciplinary teams were also established at the regional level. Some 60 extension centers were established and about 20 different units based on farmer contact groups were formed. Much training was accomplished, involving the considerable number of some 40,000 trainees, but was not judged to be very successful because of poorly motivated teachers and the low quality of teaching materials. Mass-communication materials were prepared but more slowly than planned. The monitoring and evaluation efforts came late in the project and were never fully operational. The chosen T&V model proved to be ill-adapted to the diversities of Moroccan agriculture. The ICR rates project outcome as satisfactory, institutional development as substantial, and sustainability as uncertain. The Operations Evaluation Department (OED) rates outcome as only marginally satisfactory because, although the project achieved a broad span of the objectives, it did not complete the planned advance in extension operations. It did, however, achieve satisfactory progress in the domain of agricultural research. OED reduces the rating of sustainability to unlikely, because of the uncertainty of sustained, reliable funding of the research and extension services, the absence of a follow-on project, and vagueness about the evolution of the extension system under the present strategic plan. OED rates the institutional development impact as modest rather than substantial, because the limited progress in extension means that research findings will not flow to the diverse farming communities as they should. OED agrees with the rating of Bank performance as satisfactory. Many lessons learned are claimed by the ICR, but a few stand out as adding distinctively to the experience accumulated in these subsectors: severe fluctuations in the flow of resources to research are counterproductive to high levels of research performance; planning of effective extension should be highly participatory, especially involving the farmers who stand to benefit; departing from traditional public-sector arrangements for providing extension services is generally advantageous; and, not a new finding but one well reinforced by the project, monitoring and evaluation should be designed in at appraisal and carried out from the start of project implementation. The ICR is satisfactory; it is detailed, giving a thorough account of a complex operation. On future operations, it is properly critical of the vagueness of the intentions in extension and it notes the reluctance of the government to request further financing in both the research and extension subsectors. No audit is planned.