Morocco - Education and training sector study (Vol. 4 of 6) : Agricultural education and training

Report No 4105-MOR Kingdom of Morocco -LE COPY Education and Training Sector Survey (In Six Volumes) Volume IV Agricultural Education and Training June 10, 1983 Education and Manpower Development Division Europe, Middle East and North Africa Region FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY FILE COF'Y Document of the World Bank This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performance of their official duties Its contents may not otherwise be aisclosed without World Bank authorization   FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY KINGDOM OF MORUCCM EDUCATION AND TRAINING SECrOR SURVEY Table of Contentis Page No GLOSSARY BASIC DATA INTRODUCTION I. OVERVIEW A. Background Land, People, and Resourcese**o****o. - ..... I.I. Econdm P .............. ....................... I.2 Education and Training System.y. sm I.................... i.3 Education S taey I.5 B. Education and Training Issues Primary School Efficiency. .. .... ... .. .e . I.6 Hoderating the Growth of Higher Educ ction ...........I.... 1.9 Expanding Skill Training ........................... . . .... I. 10 Content and Coverage of Agricultural Training............. I.12 Expenditure Reductionsd..... I.13 II. INVESTMENT IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING A. Introt uctio n ......1... B. Investments in Education and T raining.***.n ... II.2 Planned Investments in Education and Training-........* II.2 Proposals for Reducing Cts t s........... II.4 Capacity to Execute the Program ........................ *.. II.8 C. Operating Costs of the Education and Training System...w.*.. II.9 Present Costs and Expenses**.*.*....** ......... II.9 Financial Outlok....k II.ll Proposals for Reducing MOE Expenditures ...... .... II.12 Operating Expenditures for Training Institutions.......... II.21 Conclusionc l u s i on....................................... 11.22 III. GENERAL EDUCATION A. Organization of the Educational Systernt...........o.o...... III.1 B. Principals, Objectives and Priorities........e......... III.3 This document hu a restricted distribution and may be used byrecipientsonly in the performance of their ofrical dutes. Its contents may not otherwise be disclosedwithout World Bank authorization.  Table of Contents (Cont'd.) Page No C. Analysis of the SystemI.......... . *........ *........ . . ........ III.5 The Ministry of Education Plan ............................ III.5 Enrollments by Level ..................................... III.6 Internal Efficiency: Repeaters and Dropouts ...... #......... III.8 Geographical Imbalances .... ............. . .. . I.I. ... .10 Teacher Training- ............................... .........III.11 Administrat ion ..... o............................. 9..... II1.l3 Educational Research ... ................ ..................... . .111 3 Summary of Problems and Inadequacies in the System........ III.13 D. Conclusions and Recommendations........................................... III.15 Educational Reform........................................III.15 Priority Problems ................. ............. ................. III.15 Elements of a Strategy . .. e e. . ..o.. ...... ..................... IIIl9 IV. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING A* Introduction ................ .o................. o...... #.....*o .... IV.1 The State of Agriculture in Morocco........... o- .......... IV.1 Agricultural Development Policy....o ..................... * IV.2 Human Resources of the Rural Sector ....*................. IV.4 Agricultural Technical Staff .........0*....................... IV.6 B. Issues in Agricultural Training .......*..................... IV.9 Young Farmer Training (CRAFAs) ........................... IV.9 Agricultural Higher Education, ............ ............. .. IV.12 Agricultural Technical Education ...... ..... IV.15 C. Conclusions ....................90..006606... *.*0.00... 0.0.0...4... IVo24 V. TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING A. Introduction ...0.84... e.*.9..00.0... .O..* ......................... V.1 Socio-Economic Background ..e.o. .......................... .. .. V.1 Manpower and Training Data ..... . .................................... . V.2 B. Training .......... .*.a.............................. V.6 Overview ....... ..04... 0 .... .0.#*.... ..................... V.6 Ministry of National Education (MOE) ................... V.11 National Office of Vocational Training and Work Promotion (the Office) ............................. V.13 Ministry of Commerce and Industry ............... .......... V.21 Ministry of Housing ..... .... .. . .. ......... V.23 Ministry of Social Affairs and Handicrafts ................ V.24 Ministry of Public Works ................................ . V.25  Table of Contents (Cont'd.) Page No C. Major Issues and Areas of Possible Intervention .............9 V.26 Overview. ....... .................... , V.26 The Issues ................ V.26 Areas for Possible Foreign Participation..................e V.32 VI. NON-FORMAL EDUCATION A. Introduction ..0.00..Ooe.**,,,,,,,... 0*0.0.0.........., VI.1 B. Existing Non-Formal Programs........o......................... VI.1 Vocational Training for Boys..oys.4*0-0*............ VI.2 Training for ................................... VI.4 Handicrafts Training Centers....... ....................... VI.6 Literacy Training ..... o.*................. VI.7 Educational Television. ...........e........................ VI.8 C. Conclusions and Recommendations.............................. . VI.9 Definition of Objectiveso.....*e ... .....................o o VI.9 Women's Trainingo...... ..... ............... ............ VI.o10 Handicrafts .*.oo.... ........... .......... . .. VI.10 Basic Education ................... VI.ll Teacher Training ..o.,.e... o....e.o.............. VI.12 Equivalency *oeo....e..e..........o.....o....o....... VI.13 Annexes...............................VI.14   KINGDOM OF MORO(QCO EDUCATION AND TRAINING SECTOR SURVEY AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING INTRODUCTION The State of Agriculture in Morocco 4.01 Agriculture in Morocco is currently faced with two major problems; a national food deficit and disparities of income between regions and between social classes. 1/ 4.02 In 1979, the agricultural sector employed 47% of the national work force but contributed only 15.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) compared with 30.9% in 1970 and 32.3% in 1960. Whereas during the decade of the 1960s, agricultural GDP increased at the same rate as total GDP--at 4.2%--since 1970 it has been stagnating 2/ while the population continued to grow at a rate of 3.0% per year. Between 1969 and 1977, the volume of agricultural exports declined each year while food imports--mainly channelled to the towns--increased by 17% each year. Since 1974, the value of agricultural exports has not covered the cost of food imports. 4.03 Stagnation of agricultural production has been accompanied by growing disparities in income between rural and urban dwellers and within the rural community. An estimated 45% of Moroccan farming families live below the rural absolute poverty level (estimated in 1980 at US$200); analysis of the official statistics shows a decline in real income per capita, accompanied by increasing underemployment of this group over the past 10 years. The greatest poverty in the rural sector is in mountainous, forested, and arid regions which are difficult to develop and have hardly been touched by agricultural development programs. 1/ The terms "agriculture" and "agricultural" are used in the broad sense in this report and cover agriculture properly speaking, livestock, and forestry. 2/ After correcting for the effect of marked fluctuations from one year to another due to climatic conditions.  -2- 4.04 Agricultural income, taken as a whole, has risen in the irrigated areas and in those with favorable rainfall levels along the Atlantic coast, as shown, for example, by the increase in vegetable and sugar production. However, the income gap between rich and poor farmers is widening because of the unequal distribution of land (80% of the farmers work less than five hectares each and together hold only 27% of the cultivable land), and because of the fragmentation of the small farmers' holdings and the precarious situation of the tenant farmers (metayers). 4.05 The 1981-85 Development Plan 1/ and the World Bank report on the Moroccan agricultural sector 2/ examine the major causes of the disappointing achievements of Moroccan agriculture during the last 10 years. From the standpoint of human resources, there are two major constraints. First, rapid population growth has led to almost the whole of the seven million hectares of arable land in the country being brought under cultivation, including even some land that, because of the nature of the soil or the angle of slope, ought to be reserved for grazing or left in forest. As a result, small- and medium-sized farms are becoming smaller and increasingly fragmented, with plots more widely scattered, so that productivity is decreasing and with it the farmers' chances of access to credit and to the modern factors of production (fertilizer, improved seeds, etc.). Another consequence of this process is the acceleration of erosion in steep, broken country like the Rif and the foothills of the Atlas mountains. 4.06 A second human constraint is the slow spread of technological innovations. This is partly due to the fragmentation of holdings but stems also from the concentration of agricultural development programs in the irrigated and high rainfall areas and the relatively advanced average age of heads of family farms. Agricultural Development Policy 4.07 The 1981-85 Development Plan reiterates two of the main objectives of the 1978-80 Three-Year Plan; better performance in meeting Morocco's needs for basic agricultural products and an increase in agricultural exports. A third objective of the earlier Plan, to improve farmers' incomes, has been replaced by the aim of reducing social and regional disparities. 4.08 This change in emphasis is reflected in significant, although still minor, modifications in the action program under the Plan. Since 1/ Draft Economic and Social Development Plan 1981-85 (Rabat, Prime Minister, Secretariat of State for Planning and Regional Development, April 1981). 2/ Memorandum on Morocco's Agricultural Sector: Identification of Issues and Bank Strategy (Washingtonz World Bank, May 2, 1980).  -3- independence, the major effort of the successive plans has been directed at extending the irrigated areas, with the resuli: that more than 700,000 hectares have been brought under irrigation. The present aim of correcting disparities between regions will call for greater efforts to assist agriculture in rainfed areas (zones bour), as well as to improve liviestock production, a major activity of farmers in dry, semi-arid, and mountainous areas. 4.09 The draft 1981-85 Plan has, therefor,s, emphasized the need to give priority to developing areas that are unsuited to irrigation, in particular through integrated projects combining reinforcement of the agricultural extension services, improvement of the road system, more assistance in the field of animal health, measures to combat erosion, and, in some cases, improvement of the land tenure system. A number of these projects are already financed by the Bank 1/ or will be proposed for Bank financing. This new emphasis is reflected in the reallocation of about 15% of the capital investment under the 1981-85 Plan, as compared with the earlier plans. Implementation of these measures will require a substantial increase in the numbers of agricultural advisory staff in the field, working with the farmers. The projects proposed in the area of agricultural education and training are discussed in Sections B and C of this chapter. 4.10 The new direction given to agricultural development under the Plan will also require special efforts in agricultural research and extension work. For this purpose, the National Institute of Agricultural Research (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, INRA) and the Department of Agricultural Extension and Agrarian Reform (Direction de la Vulgarisation Agricole et de la Reforme Agraire, DVARA) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (Minist~,re de l'Agriculture et de la Reforme Agraire, MARA) 2/ have embarked, with support from the World Bank, on the preparation of master plans for research and agricultural extension. One of the proposed goals of these plans is to provide a better response to the needs of small and medium farmers, particularly in rainfed areas. This will involve adapting research programs to take account of the problems of these farmers and introducing a more decentralized research structure; currently about 60% of the research staff are working at INRA's head office in Rabat. As far as the extension service is concerned, the need is to draw up diversified goals and programs suited to the different regions and to the capabilities of the farmers and to train extension workers at all levels in methods of communication effective in rural areas, as discussed in Section C, below. 1/ The El-Hajeb, Fes-Karia-Tissa, and Loukkcs projects. 2/ See the organizational chart of the Ministry in Annex 2.  -4- Human Resources of the Rural Sector 4.11 The available statistics on the agricultural labor force vary markedly according to whether women at home are included in the category of family workers. 1/ If excluded, there would appear to have been only 2,027,000 persons employed in agriculture in 1970 (1,720,000 males and 307,000 females) out of a rural work force of 3,130,000 and a total rural population of 11,144,000, of whom more than 50% were between the ages of 15 and 64. In 1973/74, the number of males employed in agriculture would appear to have been 3,300,000. The number of working farmers that year is estimated at 1,477,000, including 345,000 who were landless and 834,500 who were cultivating less than five hectares. 4.12 Agricultural heads of household are relatively elderly, averaging about 55 years old. This is not surprising, given the improvement in life expectancy at birth for men in Morocco from 42 years in 1950-55 to 51 years in 1970-75, and the lack of additional arable land where young men could start new farms. As a general rule, therefore, young adults who stay in rural areas must continue to work as unpaid family labor to a relatively advanced age, unless they emigrate to the towns. Migration to towns is common, since the annual rate of growth of the urban population is estimated at 4.8% compared with 1.8% for the rural population. Hitherto, apart from the distribution of lands formerly held by French colonists, no measures have been introduced to assist young farmers who wish to establish their own farms. 4.13 The relatively advanced age of the farmers is probably connected with the slow rate of acceptance of technological innovations to which the 1981-85 Development Plan draws attention. Older farmers are more conservative and, particularly because they are usually illiterate, less inclined to try the improved farming methods suggested to them. 4.14 Indeed, a low level of education is another characteristic of the farming population, as revealed by the percentages of illiterates in rural areas recorded by the last general population census in 1971 and shown in Table 4.1. 1/ See L'emploi dans le milieu rural (MARA, Secretariat General, October 1977).  5- Table 4.1: RURAL ILLITERACY, 1971 (In Percentages) Age Total Men Women 15 years and over 88.5 78.1 98.7 15-19 77.6 61.9 95.5 20-24 82.1 65.6 97.4 25-34 90.3 78.9 99.2 35-44 92.5 84.4 99.7 45-54 92.8 86.6 99.7 55-64 93.3 87.7 99.7 65 and over 94.3 81.6 99.8 Though these figures may overstate the extenl: of rural illiteracy (because the criterion adopted may have been education in government schools rather than in the Koranic schools), the general picture is clear. The vast majority of the rural population is illiterate, especially women and men over 34. 4.15 Illiteracy explains in part why rural Morocco is changing so slowly, despite the ecological and demographic influences to which it is subject. Another reason is that young men have little chance of making a place for themselves in the social structure, which is still largely patriarchal. The birth rate continues to be high despite the Lack of land and the increasing degradation of the soil. The illiteracy of rural women may also be a factor. Experience in other parts of the world has shown that education speeds up social and technical change through the influence of the young people who have attended school; in particular, education of girls in school, by delaying the age at which they marry and giving them an opportunity to learn about contraceptive methods, tends to lower the birth rate. 4.16 School attendance in rural areas has. grown slowly in recent years, and the number of young people who have attended school remains too small to have made a major impact on the traditional structure of society, opening the way for progress. Moreover, the expansion of primary education also brings with it certain problems: it tends to hasten rural-urban migration, although this trend results also from the profound differences in standards and conditions of living between rural and urban areas. Primary education also  -6- creates more demand for further study at secondary and higher education levels. Students and their parents see school as the means of escaping from their present condition and obtaining well-paid and relatively secure employment in the modern sector, preferably in government service. In reality, it is the very scarcity of education in the rural world that still confers on the rural holder of a primary school diploma the prestige of a future government official. Experience in other countries shows that these exaggerated ideas are gradually modified as education becomes more widespread in rural areas, particularly when the spread of education is accompanied by a parallel development program and efforts to improve living conditions in the countryside. 4.17 Wider availability of primary education, therefore, is a prerequisite for the improvement of agricultural productivity, for the opening-up of peasant society and, in the medium term, for a slowing of the excessive demographic growth which threatens the environment and the natural resources of Morocco. 4.18 Another characteristic of the agricultural labor force is the very small number of its members who have had any training in modern farming methods. Preparation to become a farmer in Morocco lacks any formal framework and is essentially passed on from father to son. The spread of modern methods calls for larger numbers of young people to be trained in such skills as driving a tractor, operating farm machinery, grafting and pruning fruit trees, employing methods of protection against disease and insect pests and greenhouse cultivation. Agricultural Technical Staff 4.19 The agricultural technical staff in the public sector currently consists of about 2,400 engineers and qualified veterinarians and 10,200 technicians (Annex 9). Based on the FAO estimate 1/ that the needs for agricultural staff in the government service, apart from the extension services comprise about 60% of agricultural extension needs, a significant portion of the existing staff could be transferred to the extension service so that there would be one technician (technical assistant or technical agent level) for 500 farmers in rainfed areas and one technician for 100 farmers in irrigated areas, with supervision and advice at a higher level being provided by one engineer or veterinarian to every four technicians. 1/ Provisional Indicative World Plan for Agricultural Development (Rome; FAO, 1970).  -7- Table 4.2: APPORTIONMENT OF EXTENSION SERVICE STAFF Number of Ratio of Number of Number of Farms Staff/ Technicians Engineers Farmers Extension Service 1;222 5,400 1,350 Rainfed areas 1,200,000 1;400 2,400 600 Irrigated areas 300,000 1;80 3,000 750 Other functions a/ 3,240 810 Subtotal 8,640 2,160 Contingencies and private sector 1,560 240 Total 10,200 2,400 a/ Research, agricultural education, administration, disease prevention, forest management, agricultural credit, rural engineering, plant protection, etc. 4.20 In preparation for the 1973-77 Development Plan, MARA carried out a survey in 1972 among user services and agencies to determine the needs for agricultural advisory staff. The needs were determined on the basis of the organizational chart of each agency and its future action program and were then compared with the projected number of graduates of the training establishments. According to this preliminary estimate, resources and needs would be in balance in 1988 for senior engineers (ingenieurs d'Etat), in 1986 for applied engineers (ingenieurs d'application), in 1985 for technical assistants, and in 1988 for technical agents. The global needs, as determined in 1972, were used again in preparing the 1978-80 and 1981-85 Plans. A new survey was undertaken in 1980 with a view to revising estimates of long-term needs, but so few responses have been received that no conclusions can yet be reached. 4.21 The mission's estimates of long-term needs for the year 2000 were developed taking into account the coverage of technical advisory services provided in recent agricultural development projects, and thus were based on high ratios of technical staff; one technician for 250 farms in rainfed areas and one technician for 50 farms in irrigated areas, with supervision ratios of  -8- one engineer (or qualified veterinarian) to four technicians. These estimates represent a maximum order of magnitude for public sector needs. So far, the needs of the private sector are quite small; It is estimated that of 450 engineers graduating each year, only 50 will be employed in the private sector (agricultural industries, fertilizer and insecticide manufacturers, etc.) because Moroccan farmers "do not believe in diplomas" but only in experience gained on the farm. The proportion of agricultural technicians employed by the private sector is apparently even smaller. It is obvious that the real needs will depend very largely on the economic and political situation which is impossible to predict. The above estimates can, however, be accepted as reasonable orders of magnitude. 4.22 A comparison of the projected needs with the two sets of estimates mentioned above (those from the 1972 survey and the mission's) shows that by the year 2000, the number of higher technical staff available will be considerably greater than projected needs (7,400 compared with 3,300 to 5,300). The number of technicians trained will be less than needed (13,100 instead of 18,600 to 21,100). A calculation of the cost of this level of staffing in the year 2000 shows that the annual operating budget for MARA and its subordinate agencies would have to be increased at an annual rate of 6-7% during the period 1981-2000, which-seems reasonable. Lastly, a comparison of the projected number of agricultural technical staff in the year 2000 (20,500) with the probable size of the agricultural labor force (3,055,000) 1/ gives a ratio of 0.6 per 100 2/, about the same as that in a number of European countries around 1970. 3/ 4.23 Some expansion of the training schools for technical assistants, on the lines proposed in the 1981-85 Development Plan (creation of five new centers for training, research, and study in marginal farming areas and the expansion of some existing establishments) thus appears justified in the light of human resource needs. The expansion proposed under the Plan would lead to a total of 18,300 technical staff by the year 2000, equal to the projected needs. Agricultural higher education, on the other hand, seems already to have reached the necessary level of output and does not need to be further expanded. The requirements from the standpoint of quality of training are discussed in the following section. 1/ 2,027,000 x (1,018)23. The number employed in agriculture in 1977 is estimated at 2,027,000 (para. 4.11) and the annual growth rate of the rural population at 1.8% (para. 4.12). 2/ 0.84% (25,700-3,055,000), taking into account the proposed expansion of training under the Plan. 3/ See M. Zymelman, Occupational Structures of Industries (Washington, World Bank, 1980).  -9- ISSUES IN AGRICULTURAL TRAINING 4.24 The vocational training of young farmers is provided by regional Farmer Training Centers (Centres rggionaux d'animation et de formation agricoles, CRAFAS). The training of adults is handled by the agricultural extension services, described in Annex 1, paras. 1 and 8 1/; the training of extension agents is discussed in Section C below. Young Farmer Training (CRAFAs) 4.25 The CRAFAs were set up in 1968 to offer young farmers short training courses, like the cursillos (little courses) that had been available in the northern part of the country under the Protectorate. The purpose was to provide "practical training for young farmers, mainly the sons of working farmers," with the aim of "disseminating knowledge of new methods of agricultural production among family farms." The CRAFAs were to train "pilot" farmers as well as skilled agricultural labor and were seen as a means of combatting the rural exodus. 2/ Another form of training offered to young farmers is provided in the four school farms operated by the ORMVA irrigation authority. 4.26 The official target set for training is to offer annually five two-month courses for 20 participants, although several of the centers could in fact take more than 20 trainees at a time (see Annex 7 for data on the centers). A review of the data and a visit to the centers show that they are under-utilized. Nine centers were working at only 30% capacity in 1980 and 48% capacity from January to August 1981. Though partly due to a shortage of funds, under-utilization is caused mainly by the difficulty of finding candidates. Although instruction and lodging in the centers are free, and overalls and boots are given away at the end of the course, farmers often prefer to keep their sons at home to make them work on the family farm or in paid employment when possible. The directors of the CRAFAs visitied by the mission complain that, although candidates are selected by the directors of the adult agricultural training centers, called Work Centers (Centres de Travaux, CTs), all too often the trainees sent to them are not youths working on family farms but semi-delinquents who have been expelled from primary or secondary school. Not only must the CRAFAs try to give them vocational training, but they must also attempt to rehabilitate them morally and socially. Moreover, according to the CRAFA directors, some trainees enter the 1/ See also Memorandum on Morocco's Agricultural Sector; Identification of Issues and Bank Strategy (Washington; World Bank, May 2, 1980), pp. 22-23. 2/ CRAFA-Program 1981, (MARA, Department of Agricultural Extension Services and Agrarian Reform).  - 10 - CRAFA program in the hope of being employed byia State agency when they finish their training but are usually disappointed because of the lack of job openings. 4.27 More than half the centers have attempted to develop a multipurpose curriculum covering all branches of agriculture in two months' study. The students obviously benefit little from such a superficial course. The instructors, who have had no training as teachers, teach in the way they have seen in the training schools for technical assistants or technical agents, and sometimes even in French. Practical training occupies 50-60% of the time. Although this is a suitable proportion for this type of training, it often takes the form of talks and visits to farmers because the farms attached to the CRAFA frequently are not worked because of a lack of operating funds. Other centers provide specialized practical training (in operating 'a tractor, using mechanized equipment, and pruning, for example), and this method, by concentration on a particular field, contributes to a better grasp of the techniques being taught. 4.28 At the end of the CRAFA course, which is sometimes followed by an examination, the students receive a certificate. Their progress afterwards is supposed to be monitored by the staff of the adult Work Centers, and files are prepared for this purpose. According to the Director of the Agricultural Extension Services, during the past five years some 30% of former students in the CRAFAs had left their villages; the rest had returned to the family farm. However, only one of the centers the mission visited was able to provide accurate information on this point. There, of 70 trainees, 5 had found work; no information was available on the others. 4.29 The CRAFAs visited had full-time staffs consisting of one director, between one and four instructors, and between six and eight employees. In addition, the staff of the neighboring Work Centers occasionally act as instructors. The ratio of staff to students is about 1:2. 4.30 The cost of the training is high, about DR 11,000 per student per year if the CRAFAs were used to capacity. In present circumstances, the cost works out at between DH 4,400 and DH 6,600 per student for a two-month course. These costs may be compared with those for general education and vocational training: the cost per student per year in elementary education is approximately DR 620; in secondary education, DH 2,210; and in vocational training by the Office, DH 7,100 to DH 8,160. The high cost of agricultural vocational training results principally from the high instructor/student ratio and from the expense of boarding the students at the centers. In brief, the present CRAFA program seems expensive, especially as it does not appear to be very efficient. 4.31 The 1981-85 Plan; The Plan proposes the opening of 25 new CRAFAs during the five-year period, so that by 1985 there will be one CRAFA in each province. According to the senior officials of DVARA, the purpose of this proposal was to comply, at least in part, with the expressed desire of the National Assembly that there should be a CRAFA in each of the 150  - 11 - administrative districts (cercles) in the country. The rural population sees the CRAFAs as a source of opportunities for the children of farmers and a means of training skilled agricultural workers, such as tractor drivers, who are in short supply and for whom there is a demand among employers. Moreover, the establishment of a CRAFA in the neighborhood provides a considerable number of job openings for a small village, which may partly explain the pressure in their favor. On the other hand,, the information available on the students after they leave the CRAFAs is insufficient to show whether the CRAFAs actually provide job skills relevant to subsequent employment needs. 4.32 Possible Improvements: The preseni: program for training young people in the agricultural sector by means of courses in the CRAFAs ought to be reviewed and overhauled. A first step would be to define the program's purposes more precisely. Three objectives now seem to be sought simultaneously: (a) to train future heads of farms; (b) to provide training in certain specific fields (such as tractor driving, mechanics, and pruning); mnd (c) to provide some skills to rural young people who have had to drop out of school. 4.33 Objective (c) would apply to a very considerable number, and it cannot be attained exclusively through vocational training, which tends to be relatively expensive. Experience throughouc: the world shows that the formal school system is not the place to provide useful training in running small- or medium-scale farming operations. It is essesntial to make use of the existing knowledge and experience of working farmers, and to build upon it by introducing new methods. The most likely path to success seems to be through agricultural extension services, such as yolng farmers' clubs, and assistance (particularly for land purchase) to young agricultural workers who wish to start their own farms. For most would-be farmers, the difficulty of acquiring a farm is the principal constraint, rather then the need for training. 4.34 The CRAFAs would, therefore, seem to be more useful if they offered specialized training in well-defined techniques, provided of course that the demand really exists. This training would also be useful to those who will be in charge of running farming operations. 4.35 Before any new CRAFAs are established, several initiatives by MARA are clearly called for; (a) to thoroughly review the cost-effectiveness of the present agricultural training program as was recently done for the ORMVA school farms; (b) to clarify the objectives of the CRAFAs and the vocational training policy for agriculture;  - 12 - (c) to replace the multipurpose training