China - Jiangxi Agricultural Development Project

 Jiangxi agricultural development project Report No: ; Type: Report/Evaluation Memorandum ; Country: China; Region: East Asia And Pacific; Sector: Other Agriculture; Major Sector: Agriculture; ProjectID: P003513 The China Jiangxi Agricultural Development project, supported by Credit 2097-CHA for SDR 46.2 million (US$60 million equivalent), was approved in FY91. Following a one-year extension, the credit was closed in December 1995 and SDR 0.84 million (US$1.2 million) was canceled. The Implementation Completion Report (ICR) was prepared by the East Asia and Pacific Regional Office. Annex B contains the borrower’s contribution to the ICR. The objective of the project was to assist the Jiangxi Provincial Government accelerate and diversify agricultural development by improving farm productivity and strengthening support services, thereby moving small-scale farm operations from subsistence to commercial levels of operation. These objectives were to be achieved through investments in six components for: (i) small-farm development of pig, poultry, duck, and goose production; (ii) freshwater aquaculture for household and farm-scale production; (iii) commercial forest plantations; (iv) rehabilitation of tea plantations; (v) agroprocessing facilities to add value to project livestock products and to provide commercial livestock feed; and (vi) training and technical assistance to upgrade agricultural research, extension, and project management, and to introduce advanced husbandry techniques for livestock and aquaculture. The project successfully met almost all of its objectives. The livestock, aquaculture, forestry, and tea components met or exceeded their targets overall. New livestock, poultry, and fish production technologies have been widely accepted by project and non-project households alike. The agroprocessing component supported significantly fewer enterprises than planned (66 as opposed to 118), but this reduction resulted from a reevaluation of this component during the mid-term review which sensibly eliminated support for small-scale feed mills. These mills were no longer needed given changes in the scale and technology of feed mills which had taken place outside the project. Training and technical assistance performed below expectations, however. Most of the planned international training and technical assistance did not take place because project implementors were reluctant to allocate foreign exchange to activities which were perceived as not directly productive. The research budget was poorly utilized because the institutes which should have received project funds were unable to develop research programs that supported the project's stated objectives directly. The project has successfully created new employment and raised household incomes. This performance is attributable mainly to the availability of new farm production technologies suited to small farms, thorough project preparation, well-managed project implementation by the project management office, and timeliness: project area farmers were enabled by the project to respond to rapidly expanding markets for their products in Jiangxi Province, in neighboring coastal provinces, and in export markets. Several factors slowed implementation down, including a shortage of counterpart funds for civil works and agroprocessing plants, which delayed international procurement of equipment, and unfamiliarity with international competitive bidding procedures. The actual cost of foreign-purchased equipment greatly exceeded its appraised cost because of delays in procurement. The failure to implement international training and most of the technical assistance activities may slow the pace of future technological change. The overall economic rate of return (ERR) of the project has been reestimated at 32.5 percent, slightly below the rate of 39 percent calculated at appraisal. The ERRs of all five productive components of the project are above the Bank guideline. The Operations Evaluation Department (OED) agrees with the ICR in rating project outcome as satisfactory, institutional development as substantial, sustainability as likely, and Bank performance as satisfactory.  The lessons identified by the ICR suggest that: (a) high levels of borrower ownership and commitment developed during project preparation foster project viability; (b) projects with a large number of components can be implemented successfully when quality at entry is high and mechanisms for coordination of implementation work efficiently; and (c) failure to identify and correct counterpart funding shortages responsively slows the pace of project implementation. The ICR is satisfactory, but devotes limited attention to the long-term effects of the new technology supported by the project and to institutional development. While a formal plan for the future operation of the project is not included, the continued role of the PMO in guiding operations is recognized, as is further oversight by IDA in the course of future activities in China. No audit is planned.