I I - part - usaid

PROJECT FORMULATION PROCESS 'ANDANALYTICAL METHODOLOGY
USED IN PREPARING THE NERAD PROJECT PAPER
ANNEX II
The process which has resulted in the preparation of this
Project Paper has had two features which deserve further explanation.
First, the project formulation process entailed a great
deal of collaboration, not only among the MOAC, and consultants,
but also between the various agencies within the MOAC itself.
Secondly, the analytical methodology used in providing the
information base upon which the project was designed employed
several innovative procedures. This annex offers a brief
discussion of each of these features.
A. COLLABORATIVE PROJECT FORMULATION
Various MOAC and other Thai research and development
personnel began several years ago to see the need to develop
an agricultural research and development program which would
address the concerns of the majority of farmers in Northeast
Thailand who live outside of areas which have potential for
year-round irrigation. The national Workshop on Rainfed
Agriculture supported by ths FAO held in December 1978-January
1979 began to help the MOAC develop more concrete ideas on the
direction such a program might take. In June-July of 1979 USAID
financed a pre-feasibility study by a team from the University
of Wisconsin and a committee of technical specialists from
several departments of the MOAC, which resulted in the
publication Northeast Rainfed Agricultural Development:
An Opportunity Framework. This document and an additiov al series
of meetlngs of MOAC technical specialists was used to develop
the NERAD PID.
After the approval of the NERAD PID the MOAC, under the
leadership of Deputy Undersecretary of State Kangwan Devahastin,
appointed a series of working groups with representatives from
all relevant MOAC departments to perform all the tasks necessary
to develop the project:
- Under the leadership of NEROA a multi-disciplinary,
multi-departmental working group conducted a USAID-funded study
of projects in the Northeast which related to rainfed agriculture,
during October-December 1979. This resulted in the four volume
publication Survey Report on Rainfed Agricultural Projects in
Northeast Thailand, which provided information regarding relevant
research and development projects of the various RTG agencies
operating in the Northeast, including problems, obstacles,