Conservation farming on steep lands - USAid

30 TED C. SHENG and JAMES R. MElMAd
Incentives should also be given to government staff who work in the field.
The working conditions in rural areas, especially in upiands, are mostly
rough and inconvenient. Without proper incentives, such as adequate per
diem, priorities for promotion, and opportunities for advanced training,
the project will have difficulty in attracting and maintaining competent,
dedicated personnel.
Adequate adr~zirristmhve sirpport. Good administrative support is essential
but otten neglected. Administrators tend to pay more attention to headquarters
than to the field offices. Services to field offices in many countries
are poor, and staff assigned there have a sense of being downgraded.
Sufficient vehicles need to be provided to them for field use. Necessary
equipment should be available in the field. These are essentials because
soil and water conservation work is field-oriented. In many countries there
is no delegation of authority in the field regardless of the difficulty in cornniunication.
Another serious problem is frequent changes in project leaders
and key personnel, without concern for continuity.
In the real world it is not uncommon for field staff to be bogged down
because of a lack of transportation, equipment, funds, leadership, and/or
authority.
Training and research needs. Staff training is an element vital to the
success of conservation projects. A project can only grow as fast as trained
persons are available to implement the plan (5), but professional training
in soil conservation or watershed management is rather rare in the Third
World. Although young people can get trained abroad, the physical and
socioeconomic conditions are so different that they need to be re-oriented
when they return home. What really is needed is a well-designed and continuous
in-service training program tailored to local needs. Such in-service
training programs should offer to involve young professionals of various
disciplines, along with technical officers and field assistants. Experience
shows that four to five weeks should be an appropriate duration for the
initial, basic training of professionals and sub-professionals, including
substantial time for field practices. For field assistants and extension officers,
the duration can be shortened.
In addition to s ~ff training, farmer training should also be carried out
as early as possible. Usually, awareness campaigns and project introduction
meetings can be employed at the beginninz of a project and carried
on as long as needed. Special training for farm leaders and contact farmers
should follow as soon as technicians and exterision officers are properly
trained and denionstration plots start to show tangible results.
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