| CCP: GR-RI-ME-OF 01/5
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| CCP: GR-RI-ME-OF 01/5
|
Point III.b of the Provisional Agenda |
COMMITTEE ON COMMODITY PROBLEMS |
JOINT MEETING OF
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Rome, 4-5 July 2001 |
DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING THE COMMON FUND FOR COMMODITIES |
II. PROJECTS FALLING UNDER THE PURVIEW OF THE IGG ON OILSEEDS, OILS AND FATS
III. PROJECTS FALLING UNDER THE PURVIEW OF THE IGG ON RICE
1. This document reports on progress made in the formulation and implementation of projects sponsored by individual Groups for financing by the Common Fund for Commodities in conjunction with other donors. Projects are reviewed separately for each group of commodities and updates provided describe progress made since the last session of each Group.
2. In line with the CCP's recommendation that Groups seek to adopt `orphan commodities' for CFC purposes (63rd session of CCP), and in view of the proposed incorporation of dairy products into the mandate of the IGG on Meat (see agenda item IV.B), new project proposals related to dairy are presented together with those on meat.
3. Regarding the projects under formulation, formal endorsement of two proposals, presented in appendices A and B respectively, will be sought from the IGG on Meat during the meeting. A number of other project proposals have already been cleared by the Bureaus of the respective Groups, in line with the mechanism adopted by individual Groups for decision making between formal sessions, and progress on these is reported in this document.
4. Regarding the projects under implementation, the Secretariat has continued to coordinate, on behalf of the Groups, project supervisory activities. Relevant progress reports will be made available to delegates for review during the meeting.
5. With a number of projects having reached or approaching completion, the positive impact of CFC-funded projects on the development of specific commodity sectors at the national as well as regional level has become clearly visible and widely recognized.
6. Two specific issues seem to emerge from the review of projects. First, implementation experience reveals that agencies responsible for project execution need to make special efforts in monitoring and coordinating projects where activities are spread over more than one country and implementation responsibilities delegated to several collaborating institutions. In view of the difficulties involved in managing multi-locational and multi-institutional projects, the Secretariat is paying increased attention to monitoring and coordination aspects in the formulation of new projects.
7. Second, in some cases, delays have developed between project approval and actual start-up of project implementation. Factors contributing to this development include (a) the emphasis now being placed on loan financing for projects, which has further raised the requirements regarding documentation, (b) the complexity of the project appraisal process, (c) the negotiations required between project stakeholders regarding cooperation arrangements, intellectual property rights and similar matters, and (d) the need to secure co-financing.
8. The above and other issues arising from project formulation and supervision are regularly brought to the attention of the CFC and mutually agreeable solutions are identified, in particular during the annual meetings held between the Fund and IGG/ICB Secretariats.
9. In light of the above considerations and taking into account the information provided on individual projects, the members of the individual Groups are invited to formulate their recommendations. In particular, they may wish to:
10. The project on Conservation, Evaluation and Dissemination of Groundnut Germplasm and Production and Distribution of Foundation Seed in the West African Region is currently in its fifth year of implementation and has been regularly supervised by the Secretariat on behalf of the Group. A full-fledged mid-term review was undertaken by the CFC towards the end of the third year, with the participation of the Secretariat. The review team found that, despite numerous constraints, overall project progress was satisfactory and that results were in line with the project's stated objectives. In general, the project has demonstrated its high relevance for the development of the groundnut sector in the region. However, the regional scope of the project and the many institutions involved made implementation particularly difficult from an operational standpoint. This, combined with specific management problems, led to delays in implementation as well as financial difficulties, which, however, have been successfully addressed. Last year, the decision was taken to extend project implementation by one year, i.e. until summer 2002. Until then, the project is expected (a) to consolidate achievements in the area of germplasm conservation, evaluation and dissemination, focusing on capacity enhancement at the level of national research centres, and (b) to kick-start the production and distribution of improved foundation seed in the region.
11. As a spin-off to this project, in late 1999, a TCP-financed regional workshop was held to evaluate the current situation of groundnut seed production and distribution in West Africa, as well as to identify the institutional and policy framework needed to achieve sustainable access by farmers to quality seed. The workshop led to the establishment of a task force working towards initiating a regional groundnut seed network and the development of a follow-on project focussing more specifically on sustainable groundnut seed production by smallholders, with coordinated participation of the relevant public institutions and private operators.
12. Since its inception in 1996, the project on Preservation of Wild Species of Arachis in South America has yielded important results with regard to the acquisition, duplication, characterisation, conservation and distribution of Arachis germplasm. Unfortunately, the withdrawal of one of the main collaborating institutions from the project in late 1997 led to the cancellation of one entire project component. More importantly, the implementation of geographically widely scattered activities by number of agencies proved very difficult to coordinate. Management and coordination problems have increasingly affected project execution. Specific administration and reporting weaknesses at the level of the PEA hampered project supervision, eventually leading to a temporary suspension of disbursements in 1999. This restriction was lifted in 2000, following a mission carried out jointly by the Fund and the Secretariat, during which solutions to the management problems were discussed and administrative safeguards introduced. The mission confirmed the continued high relevance of the project's objectives and planned activities, noted that significant progress had been made with regard to several technical activities, and found the project's impact in terms of scientific co-operation and exchange within South America to be promising. Consequently, an 18-months extension, until autumn 2002, was recommended to allow completion of project activities. Unfortunately, project implementation has again been put into jeopardy as new legislation introducing strict control over national genetic resources is currently under consideration in Brazil, where the PEA is located.
13. The aim of the Coconut Germplasm Utilization and Conservation to Promote Sustainable Coconut Production project is to collect, conserve and disseminate coconut germplasm on a world-wide scale; produce and distribute new varieties adapted to local conditions; and disseminate information and provide training on germplasm collection and conservation and on specific breeding techniques. The five-year project is being implemented by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute with a total cost of US$ 3.57 million. The project is multi-locational in that implementation is occurring in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific Islands under the auspices of several agencies. Although the project was approved in October 1996, formal initiation was delayed until December 1999, primarily because the finalisation and signing of the various project documents took longer than anticipated. However, with the approval of the Fund, a number of activities were implemented prior to the project's official inception date. The PEA has regularly reported about these activities, which included multilocational trials and training. Recently, the project entered its second year of implementation and, at the time of writing, the first supervision mission was being prepared. Since the project's inception, the Secretariat has kept a close contact with the PEA and indications are that the project is running as scheduled. Irrespective of its complicated nature.
14. Since the Group endorsed the Coconut Integrated Pest Management project proposal in late 1997, the Secretariat has closely collaborated with the prospective project executing agency, The Asian and Pacific Coconut Community, in its formulation. The project aims at developing cost-effective, environmentally friendly integrated pest management strategies for controlling two pests that can inflict large economic losses and affect extensive areas. The project proposal underwent three more reviews by the Fund's Consultative Committee. In this process, particular emphasis was put on ensuring that the proposed technologies would be suitable for small farmers and on strengthening the mechanisms for involving smallholders at all project stages using participatory rural appraisal methods. Furthermore, arrangements for project management, coordination and planning were streamlined, the dissemination component was strengthened, and the project budget was scaled down. Eventually, in October 1999, the project was approved by the Fund. The project will be implemented over three years in various locations in Asia, the Pacific as well as Africa and is worth US$ 1.4 million. Although preparation of the project appraisal report and of the legal project documents is almost complete, project inception has been postponed as confirmation for part of the envisaged counterpart funding is still outstanding.
15. At the time of writing, no new project proposals on oilseeds or derived products were under consideration by the Fund, nor had the Secretariat received any project profile for preliminary review. Possibly, project profiles may be submitted at a later stage regarding (a) a second phase project on groundnut seed production and distribution in West Africa, (b) a workshop to evaluate the potential for enhancing production and marketing of sheanut/karitè butter in Africa, and (c) a project investigating the causes of lethal yellowing in coconut in Central America and developing solutions to the problem.
16. The Sustainable Productivity Improvement for Rice in Inland Valleys in West Africa (SPIRIVWA) project seeks to raise, over a period of four years, the productivity of rice farming in selected sites of three Western African countries through the introduction of improved production packages. The Western Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) was designated as the Project Executing Agency (PEA) and three national implementation agencies were charged to carry out the project activities at the country level, (i) Institut de Recherches et d'Études Agricoles (INERA), in Burkina Faso, (ii) Institut des Savanes (IDESSA), in Côte d'Ivoire, (iii) the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI), in Nigeria. After obtaining the Fund's approval in 1996, a number of difficulties delayed the start of the project, and official implementation began only in January 2000.
17. The implementation of the project in Nigeria is the most advanced. However, that segment of the project is currently under scrutiny, as certain administrative procedures have not been respected by NCRI. As a result, early this year, the PEA requested the Fund to temporarily suspend all money transfers to the Nigeria component. Bureaucratic difficulties slowed the start of the project activities in Burkina Faso and in Cote d'Ivoire, but progress speeded up by the end of 2000. In those two countries, the project has achieved most but not all of the activities scheduled for the first year. It is worth noting that, since mid-2000, the PEA has intensified its monitoring of the execution in the project in the three sites, with positive consequences for its advancement. Most of the difficulties faced by the PEA reside in the fact that activities are spread over more than one country involving several agencies, which makes monitoring and overall coordination particularly difficult. A supervision mission has been scheduled to be made in 2001.
18. In early 2001, the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice (FLAR) sent to the IGG on Rice a new project profile Bridging the Irrigated Yield Gap in Latin America. The project seeks to fill the yield gap in irrigated production systems in 12 Latin American countries, through technological transfers and is to be implemented over a five-year period at a cost of US$ 3.80 million. The project requests a grant from the Common Fund of US$ 1.67 million or 44 percent of total costs. The remaining funds will be secured through counterpart contributions, mostly from the national grower associations. The profile has been approved, on behalf of the IGG, by the Group's Bureau and officially submitted to the CFC in March 2001 for an early review, before it is developed into a fully-fledged project.
19. The Improvement of Fonio Post-harvest Technology project, endorsed by the Group at its 26th Session, was approved by the the Fund in October 1997 and the Project Agreement was signed by FAO in March 1999. The project, which now is in its second year of implementation, is being executed by the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD) and is being implemented in three countries, namely, Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso, by collaborating institutions that work directly with CIRAD. It is scheduled to run for four years at a cost of about US$ 1.5 million, including a grant from the CFC of US$ 915 000 with the balance provided by the PEA and collaborating institutions in each country. The overall objective of the project is to stimulate production, sales and consumption of fonio by improving post-harvest processing. The project seeks to reduce the cost of processing, minimize production difficulties, improve quality of the finished product and increase supply of the processed products to urban and export markets. Based on FAO's supervision of the project, the PEA was active in all three countries and most of the first year's scheduled activities were completed, including the inventory and testing of traditional and new technologies for fonio processing, the cataloging of fonio varieties, surveys of consumers preferences and sales and distribution channels, and training of project staff.
20. The Developments of Grain Marketing Systems through warehousing and Inventory Credit in Africa project, endorsed by the IGG at its 27th Session, was approved by the Fund in May 1998 and the Project Agreement was signed in March 1999. The total cost of the project is about US$ 2 million, of which the CFC grant is US$ 1.2 million from its First Account, with the balance to be provided through co-financing by the Department for International Development of the Government of the United Kingdom and counterpart contributions from stakeholders in Ghana, Ethiopia and Zambia. The PEA is the National Resources International, Ltd. (UK). The project will run for two years. The central objective of the project is to improve the performance of markets primarily through the development of public warehousing and inventory credit in all three countries. Based on supervisory mission reports, the project made advances during the first year, but some concerns have arisen. The primary concern is the status of the Ghana Food Distribution Corporation (GFDC) which is supposed to provide the storage facilities for the project. The future of the GFDC is uncertain as is the disposition of its warehouse facilities. While a couple of alternatives have been proposed, neither appears as satisfactory as the GFDC facilities. As for Ethiopia, the chances of completing that component of the project may be in jeopardy because of the inability of the Government to commit the necessary resources. The third phase of the project in Zambia has recently begun.
21. The project on Industrial Development of Sorghum Malt and Its Utilization in the Food Industries in Africa was approved by the Fund in October 1998. However, due to difficulties in finding counterpart funding and resolving differences between FAO and the CFC with respect to intellectual property rights, the signing of the project agreement was delayed. The PEA is the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The project sites will be located in Ghana and Nigeria and will include a pilot brewing facility in Ghana. The project is scheduled to last four years and the total cost will be US$ 2.5 million, of which US$ 1.5 million is provided as a grant from the Fund. The main objective of the project is to enhance the industrial utilization of locally grown sorghum in Ghana and Nigeria through the adaptation of new sorghum varieties and appropriate technologies for malting sorghum and processing sorghum malt into beer. This is expected to stimulate expansion of local agriculture and agricultural markets, improve integration between agriculture and industry, and create new commercial opportunities through increased added value of industrial food products using local raw materials.
22. With respect to the development of three cassava projects in Africa previously endorsed by the IGG at its 27th Session (Feb. 1997) and the Bureau in July 1997, the CFC recommended that those could be integrated within the relatively well established regional bodies involved in cassava work in eastern and southern Africa. In order to develop more integrated project proposals in the sub-region, a workshop of major stakeholders was held in June 1998 in Kampala. The workshop recommended a combination of two approaches to cassava development, namely: i) the development of village level processing; and ii) the pilot implementation of industrial scale processing of cassava into value-added products. (Workshop on local processing and vertical diversification of cassava in sourthern and eastern Africa)
23. Following the workshop on cassava, two project proposals were developed. The first: Small scale cassava processing and vertical integration of the cassava sub-sector in southern and eastern Africa was endorsed by the Group and approved by the Fund. The project agreement is currently being prepared for signature. The duration of the total project (Phases I & II) will be 5 years and the cost is estimated at US$ 4.1 million with a CFC grant of US$ 1.15 million and a loan of US$ 100 thousand. The project seeks to develop the income generating potential of cassava as a cash crop in southern and eastern Africa. To achieve this goal, the project will provide simple market-oriented technologies to smallholder farmers and farmer co-operatives, allowing them to transform highly perishable fresh cassava into stable market-grade intermediate products like chips and flour. This will, on the one hand expand the marketing opportunities available to smallholder farmers, and reduce their dependence on traders. On the other hand it will improve the quality of intermediate cassava products and encourage take-up of cassava as input by a variety of end-users. Phase I of the project would formulate and test the production and marketing strategies targeting the regional market, and in Phase II these strategies will be disseminated and extended. The status of the second project proposal is reported in section C.
24. The second project resulting from the above-mentioned workshop Industrial utilization of cassava starch and by-products in Malawi, after substantial revisions, was re-submitted and approved by the Group at its 28th Session and was sent to the Fund for approval (October 1999). However, the CFC is concerned about the economic and technical feasibility of the project and has requested an independent analysis before giving final approval. The purpose of the project is to promote the industrial utilisation of cassava starch for production of hot-setting and cold-setting adhesives and for other industrial applications. There already exists technology for the extraction of starch from cassava and technology for making household-type cold-setting cassava starch adhesives. Research has also been conducted to develop and test formulations of hot-setting adhesives with potential for industrial utilisation. Pilot production of starch on an industrial scale is required to demonstrate the economic and financial viability of cassava starch in industrial and domestic applications.
25. The project Development and Promotion of Value-Added Meat Products in Sub-Saharan Africa was completed in December 1999. The primary goal of this US$1.3 million project, which was implemented by FAO over 30 months, was the development and promotion of low cost value-added quality meat products. These products, disseminated as a result of the development of a competitive meat processing industry in Uganda, were targeted to low-income rural and urban populations in Uganda and other East African countries.
26. The final supervisory report, submitted by Winrock International, concluded that the project met all its objectives. By the end of the project (a) a pilot processing plant was fully operational under a lease agreement with a private company; (b) five regional training courses had been conducted; (c) Sixteen new meat products were available on the market while an additional eight were tested and ready for production at the close of the project.
27. The West African Livestock Marketing Project, a three year project with a budget of US$1.51 million ($950,000 from the CFC), was approved in 1998 and initiated in January 1999. Project activities focus on two components: 1) the development and strengthening of West African border markets (in Burkina Faso and Mali) which are conduits for transborder trade in livestock (implemented by the Comite Permanent Inter Etats de Lutte Contre la Secheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS) as the PEA of the project); and 2) the determination of appropriate economic incentives and policy framework to improve livestock marketing and intra-regional trade (implemented by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)).
28. The project, despite some delays in the first year of implementation, is well underway in achieving its objective of developing market infrastructure in the three border markets, located in Burkina Faso and Mali. Supervision at the individual markets is reinforced by strong local participation and surveillance. The status of mapping of livestock trekking routes (part of component 1) remains problematic. While the exact livestock route in Burkina Faso remains undecided, only limited progress has been made in some other participating countries: Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Niger, and Nigeria. Delays in this activity reflect the difficulties of managing a regional project, in part due to delays in appropriate support action by public authorities in the individual countries.
29. The policy component of the project is progressing in a timely fashion with ILRI collaborating closely with CILSS. While it is certainly advantageous to have a local/regional PEA such as CILSS working with ILRI on project activities, the logistics of ensuring timely arrival of funds to each institution has proven to be a critical problem, especially since ILRI works with US$ while CILSS in CFA. The most recent supervisory report will be available for interested delegates.
30. The project on Meat Commodity Diversification and Upgrading of Meat Processing Technologies in Asia-Pacific, a US$2.2 million project (US$850,000 funding from CFC), endorsed by the Group at its 17th Session, was approved in September 2000 by the CFC, but project documents have not been finalised. This 3-year project is a regional meat processing project for Asia and Pacific which focuses on improved utilisation and marketing of meat and processed meat products from various livestock species. The immediate objective of the project is to address regional issues in meat processing including severe hygiene and technological problems that lead to significant economic losses and food safety concerns.
31. The project is based in the Philippines with satellite centers in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Samoa. The PEA of the project is the Animal Products Development Center (APDC), a meat training and development center operated by the Philippine Bureau of Animal Industry. The APDC will manage the project, which includes housing the regional technical training workshops and coordinating the loan component of the project, with the support of the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. The regional nature of the project will strengthen the technological, sanitary, commercial and environmental conditions of meat sector development in the more advanced countries and will act as a catalyst to start those developments in least developed countries of the region. The dissemination of technical know-how will be achieved through:
32. The project, Enhancing Beef Trade in Central America, endorsed in November 1998 by the Group, was submitted twice to the CFC for funding consideration. In January 2000, the CFC Consultative Committee (CC) acknowledged that disease control is an important factor contributing to enhanced meat trade. The Committee, however, felt that the project lacked focus and recommended that the CFC fund a project planning workshop involving technical experts, relevant institutions of the region, as well as ILRI, the proposed PEA of the original project. This workshop was held in August 2000 in Nicaragua, to discuss the specific meat production and trade constraints of the region and to identify the measures needed to improve regional meat trade. The workshop resulted in the development of a more focused funding proposal for submission to the CFC by ILRI and its regional partners which was subsequently, in January 2001, reviewed by the CFC. The Consultative Committee, at that time, recommended that the proposal could be improved by the provision of additional information as well a refocusing of the project on improving farm productivity, beef quality and safety standards and controls. A revised project proposal is being prepared for the July 2001 meetings of the CC.
33. Two further proposals are currently under formulation. The proposals relate to (a) the development of smallholder dairy systems in Eastern and Southern Africa, and (b) improved trade and marketing of ruminant meats in Southeast Asia. Before submitting these two proposals to the Fund for consideration, the Secretariat is seeking their formal endorsement. To this end, summary profiles of the two proposals are presented in appendices A and B respectively.
Improving Trade and Marketing of Ruminant Meats in Southeast Asia, submitted by ILRI for CFC funding consideration under the Project Preparation Facility (PPF), proposes to address various interrelated issues on livestock production and trade in ruminant meats.
Background and justification
Macro-level structural adjustment and liberalization of price and sector policies globally have opened the way for increased participation of the smallholder livestock producers and their market agents in economic development. However, in Southeast Asia, policy, institutional, and technical constraints continue to limit livestock production and trade, by restricting the contribution of smallholder livestock producers to economic development.
The need for a significant increase in livestock production in the Southeast Asian region is associated with growing deficits of per capita availability of animal products, such as meat and milk. Consequently, livestock production and development strategies are giving priority to the ruminant sector. Governments have supported such strategies in recognition of the fact that ruminant meat production from smallholder farms will continue to be the major source of supplies of such meats. Smallholder ruminant production also has implications for food security and poverty alleviation, as well as effective sustainable utilization of natural resources.
Objectives
The project has the overall goal of improving the welfare of producers and consumers. It specifically aims at improving trade in livestock and livestock products and market participation by smallholders, and increasing access to and consumption of ruminant meat through more efficient and cost-effective production. The primary focus will be on beef, and secondarily on the other ruminant meats. The project supports smallholder livestock development through four interrelated components including:
The tentative cost of the 3-year project is US$2 million; however, IRLI is requesting at this time, on behalf of its collaborators which include various veterinary and health institutes through the Southeast Asian region, CFC PPF financing of US$115,000 for project development.
Technologies and Enabling Policies for the Development of Smallholder Dairy Systems in Eastern and Southern Africa
Background and justification:
In much of Eastern and Southern Africa, smallholder dairy producers depend on informal milk markets to sell their output. These markets are constrained by inappropriate policies, poor infrastructure, seasonality of supply, and limited access to modern handling and processing technology. Informal milk markets are also associated with the potential for increased public health hazards through bacterial and other contamination and zoonotic diseases like tuberculosis and brucellosis. In addition, access by smallholders to livestock services is generally poor, limiting the adoption rate of marketed dairy production in areas distant from consumption centres. Smallholders, who comprise the vast majority of producers, have to contend with a variety of constraints stemming from inappropriate policies, poor marketing arrangements, lack of access to modern technologies, and livestock diseases.
In recognition of this serious under performance of the regional dairy sector, the national and regional development plans of most countries in eastern and southern Africa have identified the sector as a priority for development. This prioritisation has been repeatedly endorsed by regional consultations held by National Agricultural Research Centers, ILRI and agencies such as the CFC (Lusaka July 1997). Quite recently, October 2000, the SADC Livestock Sub-Committee on Veld, Production and Marketing, at their annual meeting held in Lusaka, Zambia, confirmed the smallholder dairy sector development as a regional priority and endorsed the development of this concept note
Objectives
The project's overall objective is to improve the welfare of producers and low-income consumers through increased productivity and market participation by resource-poor livestock owners. This will have significant positive impacts on national and regional economic development because of the tremendous potential for livestock to contribute to agricultural gross domestic product (AGDP) with the increased intensification of agriculture.
This project proposes collaborative research and outreach activities to review the following issues which constrain regional market development for milk projects: 1) policy interventions and infrastructural requirements; 2) distorting market and regional trade policies which constrain market participation by smallholders; 3) threats to public health posed by informal milk marketing; and, 4) technical constraints to improving smallholder dairy production and marketing. The project will address the main constraints to regional trade in milk and livestock products through five interrelated components:
Collaborative research and outreach activities by the proposed PEA of the project (ILRI) will address these issues in an integrated manner, with the goal of identifying and dissemination of practical solutions. In order to maximize impact from this project, and produce outcomes with wide application, the work is proposed to be conducted simultaneously with partners in several countries. Eight member countries of the Common Fund for Commodities, including four countries in East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania) and four countries in southern Africa (Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe) are proposed for the regional pilot study. At the end of the pilot study, a more focused study will be undertaken in 2 of the participating countries in each sub-region. The project is conceived as a US$3 million, three-year project; however, at this time US$120,000 is requested by ILRI to develop the full project with national and regional partners.
