A research article conducted by:

Dr. Abdulredha Bahman - Senior Engineering Advisor at the Kuwait Fund

Manar Mansour - First Specialist Engineer at the Kuwait Fund

Field evaluation of agricultural projects is conducted after the availability of technical and economic feasibility studies, which include the essential information and data needed by the evaluation team. This field evaluation aids in making appropriate decisions when prioritizing the allocation of financial resources to various components of the project.

 

Agricultural projects go through a phase known as the “project cycle,” which includes project identification, preparation of studies, field evaluation, negotiations, and the proposed loan agreement. Field evaluation is one of the most critical stages of the project cycle, as it determines the feasibility of the proposed project, both technically and economically, to provide final recommendations to the fund’s management on the suitability of financing.

During the project cycle phase, project-related data and information are reviewed in collaboration with the borrower, including economic, financial, legal, technical, engineering, and agricultural data, and their conformity with the feasibility study of the project. This also includes reviewing prices, anticipating increases in quantities and prices of materials during implementation, determining technical services, estimating operational and maintenance costs, and then estimating the total project costs and the list of goods to be financed by the fund loan.

Additionally, this phase includes an evaluation of institutional capacity, highlighting the entity responsible for project implementation in terms of organizational structure and technical management, and the availability of local capacities to achieve the desired objectives in managing and monitoring project implementation at its various stages. This phase also involves reviewing the cost-benefit analysis method for the most suitable alternative to achieve the project’s objectives.

 

Data and information needed for appraising agricultural projects

Starting a new project or expanding an existing one or rehabilitating an old project requires some criteria to appraise the situation before starting to finance any development project. This includes technical, legal and other matters to calculate economic or financial returns, in addition to Social benefits. Field visit is necessary as it provides opportunities to learn about the reality of the project areas and nature of the beneficiaries and to listen to them directly regarding their views and opinions. There are some key matters should be taken into consideration during the field visits. They can be addressed as follows:

• Focusing on Land tenure system and ownership policies.
• The availability of public services in the project areas.
• During this stage, the social impacts of the project are also discussed.
• Measures must be taken to discuss the environmental impacts expected from project implementation; as agricultural projects include elements with significant environmental impacts including land reclamation, building dams, settlement and others.
• It is necessary to discuss the transboundary water which is "a system of waters that flow naturally towards a common outlet, parts of which are located in more than one country or region". It is necessary to ensure that there are agreements between the riparian countries and to review them from a legal standpoint. These waters include rivers, lakes and groundwater.
• Participation of beneficiary groups which is very useful to meet individuals and groups directly benefitting from the projects, in order to increase understanding of their role and obtain realistic information and opinion about the project areas and the obstacles they face.
• It is also possible that during the appraisal, the need for modification may arise to be added to components or elements to the project.

Essential Information and Data for Evaluating Various Agricultural Projects

Agricultural Sector:

• Information about the sector and its economic and social importance at the national level, its contribution to national income, export revenues, and the percentage of the national budget spent on it, and the official entities responsible for the sector.
• It is essential to obtain information from official state sources, especially statistics from which agricultural data is derived.
• Numerical activities of different branches of the sector such as irrigation, crop production, animal production, natural pastures, forests, and fisheries.
• Total area of the country, arable and cultivated land, areas planted with major crops nationwide, the average size of agricultural holdings, and average annual crop production quantities in tons over the last five years.
• Surface and groundwater resources, major flowing rivers, their lengths, flow rates, major existing dams, and their storage capacities.
• Summary of climate and weather patterns nationwide.
• Major obstacles facing the sector and plans for its development.

 

Project area

The following are the main information needed regarding the project area:

• Addressing the location of the project and the distance from the country's capital and determining the gross and the net area.

• An overview of the topography of the land and a description of the prevailing covering vegetation.
• Summarizing the climate of the area and indicating rainy seasons, precipitation and temperature, averages relative humidity and annual evaporation rates.
• Briefly summarize the classifications and types of soil, their sustainability for agriculture, and their most important problems and provide solutions.
• Land ownership and agricultural holdings: a system for distributing land according to the purpose, the average area of each holding (hectares), addressing the situation before the project and after its implementation.
• Providing statistics on the numbers of farmers and agricultural families benefiting, and determining the percentage of women beneficiary of the project.
• Crop cycle program: determining seasonal planting periods and identifying the main crop types (Food and cash) and expected productivity before and after the project (tons/ha) and determine crop intensity.
• Information and data on the main sources of irrigation water, and calculated water needs (m3/ha per season for each crop).
• Agricultural inputs: The project needs of the most important inputs, such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, manpower, agricultural mechanization and others.
• Agricultural organizations and services: Addressing and researching the provision of water user associations, producers and breeders, and organizations that contribute to providing services to beneficiaries, and the extent to which state services are available to them in terms of training and extension services, and the availability of agricultural credit services.
• Ensuring capacity building support for project workers and beneficiaries through workshops.
• Providing data on animal population and production in the area including livestock, poultry, fishing and others.
• Information and data about the social infrastructure and services available in the area such as educational or health, roads, marketing and storage means... etc.

Special Conditions

There are some special conditions or covenants the borrower should undertake at the Fund's request during the appraisal, the most important of which are the following:

• Ensuring the allocation of sufficient quantities of water for irrigation purposes during all seasons.
• Providing training and extension services in the project areas for the beneficiaries.
• Providing credit facilities to beneficiaries in the project areas.
• Taking measures to ensure that beneficiary associations are established, organized in accordance with the rules and regulations prevailing in the country. This is before the implementation so that it has to carry out the tasks and responsibilities assigned to it, especially with regard to maintenance works. Providing agricultural production marketing services sufficient to meet the needs of beneficiaries.
• Facilitating and providing agricultural inputs necessary for various production activities.
• Providing the necessary veterinary care services to maintain the health of livestock in the area. In some projects, it is necessary to create corridors for the grazing livestock to cross between agricultural areas and controlling its movement.