- Agriculture-focused aid is not a matter of getting proven programs to those who can't afford them. We have not found any particular approach that has a demonstrably strong (and promising) track record.
- We have not found any charity doing demonstrably successful agriculture-focuses work.
This page reviews what we know of the track record of programs focused on improving agricultural output, particularly in Africa. Overall, we have seen few demonstrable successes among these programs (aside from the research behind the Green Revolution, discussed below). Thus, when evaluating an agriculture-focused charity or project, we think it is appropriate to look for evidence of sustained and meaningful improvements in targeted individuals' incomes and standards of living.
The Green Revolution
In the last several decades, much of the developing world – particularly Asia – has experienced enormous gains in agricultural productivity.
We frequently see significant credit for the improvements attributed to philanthropically-funded research, particularly on improved seeds. However, Africa has yet to experience similar gains, despite what we see as a similar degree of relevant philanthropic investment.
Integrated Rural Development: addressing many issues at once
"Integrated Rural Development" refers to a multifaceted attempt to improve production and growth in a rural area, often simultaneously addressing health, transportation, credit, and agricultural knowledge. This type of program appears to have been common in the 1970s and 1980s, but now appears to be seen as a disappointment, and abandoned by the development community.
A 2004 overview by the Department for International Development, which manages foreign aid for the British government, cites the following as general problems with its Integrated Rural Development projects:
- Sustainability: inability to continue maintaining (and securing funding for) programs long enough to create impact. "The recurrent budgets of governments were frequently unable to bear the burden of expenditure required by the project: for example, staff employed by some projects were no longer being paid, buildings were not maintained, vehicles were not replaced and there was sometimes no fuel for the ones that were available."
- Inaccurate knowledge of – and insufficient adaptation to – local conditions. "Many of the projects suffered from lack of detailed knowledge of the general farm systems, and the particular crop production systems operating in the project area ... it was often difficult to obtain the necessary knowledge during implementation ... Generally, it was found that the proposed new crop technologies required further testing on small-holder farms in the areas ... the changes were expected to be adopted by too great a proportion of farmers in too short a period of time ... Because of the above problems of analysis of farm gate prices, and over-optimistic yield assumptions, it was often found that the crop-production package in the project was not sufficiently financially rewarding to the farmers when account was taken of the changes in family labour input."
- Management was overloaded with these highly complex and multifaceted projects. "The incorporation of non-agricultural components into the projects overloaded management so that implementation suffered."
More targeted agricultural interventions
Many aid projects have focused on a particular aspect of agricultural productivity such as irrigation or provision of livestock. We have found relatively little information on the general track records of these specific interventions, in terms of their ultimate impact on the lives of the people they aim to help. However, the World Bank's reviews of its own projects illustrate some of the challenges associated with particular targeted agricultural projects:
- Research on improved seeds. As discussed above, agricultural research is widely believed to have led to enormous gains outside of Africa, but with no comparable success within Africa. The World Bank's evaluation group states that "seed-related activities have so far made only a modest contribution to increases in crop production. Bank projects have also not been able to address the issue of limited use of seeds by farmers because of inadequate access to complementary inputs."
- "Rural extension services" or "agricultural extension services" are terms that commonly refer to the practice of sharing and disseminating agriculture-related knowledge. A 2006 World Bank review implies that the track record of such programs was disappointing both before and during the use of the "Training and Visit" (T&V) model, which was abandoned during the 1990s. The recent overview of agricultural interventions by the World Bank's evaluation group notes that "Despite all the demand-driven and partnership approaches that the Bank has supported since it abandoned T&V, a viable and sustainable option to replace T&V has yet to be developed for Africa." One potential problem that may affect extension service programs is the tendency for information and training to disproportionately reach the farmers who are already better off, which may exacerbate existing inequalities.
- Irrigation. The World Bank's evaluation group gives a mostly inconclusive overview of recent projects, concluding that,
In most of these interventions, physical targets are achieved or exceeded, but the projects themselves have not been sufficiently integrated with the countries' agricultural development strategy. Further, M&E [monitoring and evaluation] has been very weak, so it is difficult to assess what has worked and what has not. The literature, however, suggests that such small-scale, technically simple water management systems can be effective in rain-fed areas.
A recent review by the International Water Management Institute states that irrigation projects have been successful in some past cases, but also states that "well-intended efforts of governments and NGOs to ”˜improve' farmer-managed irrigation are often counter-productive, distorting rather than strengthening the irrigation arrangements that already exist."
- Improving transportation infrastructure. We have found little evidence regarding the impact of transportation-focused projects, and the World Bank specifically notes the thinness of its own project evaluations in this area. Maintenance appears to be a major concern in this area. In the past, many roads have been built, but not maintained, by donors, leading to deterioration and even speculation that the projects may have done more harm than good.
- Livestock. We have seen very little documentation on the impact of programs that give livestock and/or focus on livestock management. We are concerned that such programs have the potential to do harm when they do not distribute such gifts equitably (or are not perceived to be doing so); one World Bank project evaluation points to serious problems with a smaller-than-expected supply of livestock, leading to jealousy among locals.
Recent reports from the World Bank (both from the evaluation group and the World Development Report) imply that on the whole, agriculture projects have continued to struggle with the challenge of properly adapting to local conditions.
Conclusion
Our information on the specifics of agriculture programs is extremely limited, and comes almost entirely from the World Bank's self-evaluations; we provide this information merely to illustrate many of the potential concerns with agriculture projects. We have found few claims that agriculture-based aid, outside of the research behind the "Green Revolution," has any major demonstrable success stories to point to, and many reasons to think that there are significant risks of failure.
When evaluating an agriculture-focused charity or project, we think it is appropriate to look for evidence of sustained and meaningful improvements in clients' incomes and standards of living. We do not believe that a one-time boost in crop yields is sufficient, as we
have argued on our blog. To date we have not identified any standout agriculture-focused charities.
Sources
- Anderson, Jock R., Gershon Feder, and Sushma Ganguly. 2006. The rise and fall of training and visit extension: An Asian mini-drama with an African epilogue (PDF). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3928.
- Awulachew, S.B, et al. 2005. Experiences and opportunities for promoting small-scale/micro irrigation and rainwater harvesting for food security in Ethiopia (PDF). Addis Ababa: International Water Management Institute.
- Department for International Development. 2004. Synthesis of integrated rural development projects (PDF).
- Department for International Development. Rural development in Africa: A synthesis of project experience (PDF).
- Department for International Development. Who we are and what we do. http://www.dfid.gov.uk/About-DFID/Quick-guide-to-DFID/Who-we-are-and-what-we-do/ (accessed July 2, 2010). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5qvNJCEDx.
- Easterly, William. 2008. Can the West save Africa? (PDF). NBER Working Paper.
- Heitzman, James and Robert L. Worden, ed. 1995. The green revolution: India, A country study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress. http://countrystudies.us/india/104.htm (accessed July 2, 2010). Page "snapshot" available at http://www.givewell.org/files/ExternalWebsites/Agriculture/Green_Revolution-Case_study_of_India.pdf.
- Millennium Villages. FAQ. http://millenniumvillages.org/resources/index.htm#02 (accessed July 2, 2010). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5qvN40LX2.
- Peterson, Benjamin. 2008. Roads to development: A geospatial study of the political economy of road building in Haiti (PDF). Honors Thesis, Stanford University Department of International Relations.
- Sachs, Jeffrey. 2005. The end of poverty: Economic possibilities for our time. New York: Penguin.
- USAID. Integrated rural development: Lessons learned (PDF). Publication date unknown.
- Wikipedia. Agricultural extension. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_extension (accessed July 2, 2010). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5qvOelrBO.
- World Bank. 2004. Implementation completion report on a loan in the amount of US$27.0 million to the Republic of Indonesia for the Nusa Tenggara agricultural area development project (PDF). Indonesia: World Bank.
- World Bank. 2007. World Bank assistance to agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa: An IEG review (PDF). Washington DC: World Bank.
- World Bank. World development report (2008) (PDF).