Bi.,5 - (PDF, 101 mb) - USAID

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Thus, particularly at the levels closer to the peasantry,
this requirement for a successful system appears fulfilled.
As qraduates of these institutions take up their duties
within the agricultural support system, the farmers of the country
are expected to benefit by gra.dual increases in their productivity
as a result of greater access to the support system. This includes,
among others, greater accessibility of physical inputs and technical
information, improved credit programs, and better marketing systems.
Many small, near-subsistence farmers are expected to achieve modest
increases in production sufficient to improve the nutrition of the
farm family and to increase the products available for sale by means
of evolutionary modifications in farming techniques. Farmers who
benefit from the improved agricultural support system as a result
of this project will be self-selected, in that each individual farmer
will have the choice to take advantage of new methods and materials
or to decline to make the changes involved (this element of choice,
of course, is a very desirable testing mechanism which could prevent
the widespread adoption of unproven and ultimately unsuitable or even
harmful technological innovations).
In addition, a few advanced farmers and conmercial enterprises
may be able to benefit from the improvements in the agricultural support
system or from direct employment of graduates of the institutions
supported by this project.
Increased farm production will benefit the consumers of UV,
particularly those in urban centers, but also those on farms insofar as
greater availability of food and fiber produzts facilitates purchases
to supplement on-farm products.
Ultimately, the whole people of UV will be beneficiaries by
a reduction or elimination of the need for importation of food staples
and an increase in farm products available for export. This will decrease
the trade deficit and reduce the dependence of the country on
foreign donors.
In the long run, however, the best trained and most highly
motivated extension staff will be of little help if research is not
institutionalized so that the new questions carn be both raised and answered.
At present, UV has a multitude of agricultural research organizations
working within its frontiers with little coordination.
These organizations represent a number of donor nations, international
organizations, and voluntary associations (see Annex G.13). This
project addresses this problem through the establishment of ISP as
an indigenous agricultural research organization capable, through its