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7. Sources of project assistance
FAO
offers project help
South Korea expands cropland
Jamaican project succeeds
USAID helps rural poor
Sweden
assists Kenya government
GTZ assists many countries
For countries seeking help with soil and water conservation projects, there are a number of sources of technical and financial assistance, both public and private.
One important source is FAO, which assists member countries with a wide range of field projects. These are carried out only at the request of the recipient countries, which assign their own technicians to the projects to work with FAO experts and provide support services.
The aim of FAO field activities is not to solve countries' problems for them but to develop local resources for dealing with those problems. In 1980, FAO was involved in some 50 projects or parts of projects in soil and water conservation and related resources. Of these, 16 were in Africa, 10 in Asia and Oceania, 19 in Latin America, and 5 in the Near East and Europe. Projects covered a variety of subjects, involved many disciplines and drew on the experience of conservation experts from many countries.
Participation in some projects is modest, with one or two FAO experts assigned to a country for a short time to deal with a specific problem of agricultural development. Other projects may continue for years and extend over whole regions of the world.
Aid offered in finding financing
In addition to the other forms of assistance it provides, FAO recently proposed four kinds of soil conservation projects for consideration by interested countries.
One type of project would assist a country's government to start a national programme of soil and water conservation. The programme might include improvements in shifting cultivation and help bring about land use planning for increased farm production on a sustained basis.
A second type of project would develop and implement soil and water conservation techniques in watersheds. This would involve land use planning in one or two critical watersheds as well as rural development, better management of soil, water, and plant resources, and improvements in shifting cultivation.
A third type would provide suitable training for land use officials and land use policy makers on the causes and consequences of land degradation.
A fourth type would provide practical training at the farm level in soil and water conservation techniques for farm planners and rural extension workers. An objective would be to create more awareness among these field workers of the extent of damage from soil degradation and to teach them to apply simple soil conservation techniques to protect farm resources.
FAO has already amassed considerable experience in all these types of projects during the last two decades and stands ready to share its experience and expertise with as many countries in need of assistance as its budget will allow.
Aid offered in finding financing
FAO also helps countries to identify and formulate projects for investment and, through the FAO Investment Centre, to apply for loans for agricultural and resource development. Today there are a number of important sources of investment funds for developing countries. These include:
From the mid-1970s to 1982 FAO's Investment Centre has helped countries to prepare development projects with total investment costs of nearly $13 billion. About half this amount has been provided in loans and credits from the financing institutions with which FAO cooperates. The remainder has come from the countries themselves. Increasing emphasis is being placed on investments which will result in improvement in the lives of poor farmers in the developing world.
Unexpected
problems
Learn
to consult villagers
An early example of an FAO project that was eventually continued with World Bank financing took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s in three large upland watersheds in the Republic of Korea. The mountainous country has a total land area of nearly 10 million hectares, but only about 23 percent was cultivated. The government wanted to expand farmland in the uplands through improved soil and water management.
The Upland Development and Watershed Management Project followed a successful small-scale demonstration project conducted with FAO assistance in two sub-watersheds. The pilot project proved that the watershed approach to development was practical in attacking a variety of related problems.
The larger watershed project, which was paired with a second project to improve forestry, was financed in part by the United Nations Development Programme, with the bulk of the funds coming from the Republic of Korea.
Part of the effort was directed toward helping Korean farmers in the uplands to apply soil conservation measures. Farmers learned to build various types of terraces and were encouraged to use fertilizers, manure, and lime. Technical specialists showed them how to build check dams and plug gullies, and they suggested planting hard-to-protect slopes in grass or trees.
Based on a land use and capability study made for the watersheds, project leaders recommended developing the hilly, eroded lands in upland drainage basins for dryland farming, using bench terraces to protect the soil wherever the slope, depth of soil and soil texture were favourable. They also suggested supplementary irrigation.
It was the opinion of the project leaders that one million hectares in the uplands that had been restricted by law to forest reserves could be safely converted to improved rangeland and 200 000 additional hectares could be switched to reseeded pasture. A new beef cattle industry could be established on the land, which could also provide manure for the cultivated areas.
As in all projects, unforeseen problems appeared as work moved forward. Traditional terracing techniques proved expensive and ineffective, and too many repairs had to be made before soils were kept in place. A new terrace design was tried, but it also proved costly and not always effective, either. Conservationists turned to slower and less expensive erosion control measures that allow natural processes to heal severely eroded areas.
Many forest soils needed fertilizer, but available agricultural mixtures failed to provide the needed nutrients. Further, soluble fertilizers were leached out quickly before they could benefit young trees. improved fertilizers and methods for applying them had to be developed.
But progress in the watershed development went forward, despite occasional setbacks. Flood and siltation damage below structures to control torrents was practically eliminated when torrent control works were planned as an integral part of the watershed drainage system.
In large areas of rainfed paddy land in steep valleys, there was no economically sound method of water storage for irrigation. Project scientists developed, designed, and implemented a dual purpose system of water storage and fish culture. After constructing and stocking 34 fish ponds, project leaders noted with satisfaction that farm income began to rise.
An important lesson learned by FAO experts was that farm management and community facilities could be improved only through decisions made by the local farmers themselves. At the start of the project, several experts gave instructions to villagers without first considering the villagers' needs and desires. In not one instance did they obtain cooperation by giving orders to local people.
On the other hand, when villagers were consulted, they not only cooperated, but made important contributions of ideas, cash, and labour. Taking the traditional cooperative spirit of the village society as a basic stepping stone, village development associations were established in 17 villages. Community concerns in a typical village were raising cattle and pigs, ensuring adequate, clean water supplies, home improvement, and credit facilities. Each development association was registered as a credit union, which embodies in its regulations the requirements of self-help, self-reliance, and democratic administration.
Based on its experience with the project, the government of the Republic of Korea accepted in principle the approach of comprehensive area development within the boundaries of watersheds. It subsequently requested a project extension to prepare feasibility studies for international financing, which led to World Bank financing and a continuation of the work.
Planning calls for compromise
Agro-forestry
has potential
Certain practices unacceptable to farmers
A more recent FAO project with a successful outcome was carried out in Jamaica. Jointly financed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Norway, its purpose was to train Jamaican professionals in conservation and to help make detailed plans for nine potential watershed projects in the Kingston area.
The nine watersheds, which cover about 45 000 hectares, are adjacent to Kingston, and several contribute to the city's water supply. The area has more than its share of problems, both physical and economic. Altitudes range from 150 metres to 1400 metres; rainfall ranges between 100 and 250 centimetres a year, but there are regular dry seasons. The rugged area supports some 60 000 people, about half of them engaged in agriculture. Roughly half the area is farmed, and average farm size is less than two hectares. Many farms are located on steep land where erosion is serious.
The people who live on these small farms are no longer young; average age of the farmers is 51. Much of the food they grow is for their own table. Yields of all crops are typically low.
The objective of the watershed projects is to improve resource management, while helping at the same time to improve the lives and livelihoods of rural people. The prime aid is to control soil erosion. Unless erosion is slowed down, the productivity of the watersheds can be expected to decline at a rapidly increasing rate over the next few years. Mountain forests will continue to be cut; the intensity and frequency of flooding will increase. Impoundments behind dams will fill with silt, and bridges and roads downstream will be threatened. Protection of the soil that remains and development of farming systems that sustain the land are therefore essential parts of the proposed development plans.
For planners, the 2-year watershed planning project proved a combination of success, disappointment, and compromise.
On the positive side, the small number of Jamaicans with professional training in soil conservation and watershed management was greatly increased through 11 different training courses running from 2 to 4 weeks. Training manuals were also prepared on hydrology, forestry, agronomy, soil conservation, extension, and other subjects.
In addition, 16 participants were selected for 6-month fellowships overseas to study various aspects of watershed management. Plans were also underway to incorporate soil and water conservation in the curriculum of the Jamaica School of Agriculture. Trained Jamaicans are now available to help carry out watershed development plans when the projects become fully operational.
Aerial photographs and soil surveys of the project area showed the planners that land use was not entirely rational. Sections of the watersheds with good potential for cropland were being under-utilized, while steep, highly erodible land was being intensively cultivated. It was clear that several areas under forest could more profitably be used for agriculture, while some of the poorer farmland should be planted in trees. Absentee ownership of forestland accounted for part of the irrational land use.
Planners called for prompt action to protect marginal lands with slopes greater than 30 degrees, where land holdings are so small that they cannot provide a decent living for the people who live there, no matter how hard they work. Such lands constitute more than half the area in the project. The FAO team speculated that the land could support a mountain economy based on activities related to forestry, like charcoal production, cottage industries, recreation and tourism.
Agro-forestry has great potential in the area, since it constitutes an excellent means of production and protection in steep areas. Several systems of agro-forestry already exist, some of them highly diversified. On a typical farm, the upper canopy is formed by timber species, breadfruit trees, coconut, or mango trees. The lower stratum includes cash crops like coffee, cocoa, citrus, bananas, ackee (Blighia sapida Koenig), and pimento (Pimenta officinalis). Coffee is particularly promising for the area, since it provides reasonable protection to the soil under tree shade or in individual basins. More attention needs to be given, however, to suitable mixes of timber, fuel wood, and fodder species, and to food trees.
Certain practices unacceptable to farmers
But there were disappointments. Farmers at the demonstration sites did not adopt all the practices recommended to them. One type of "discontinuous" orchard terracing, for example, was not accepted at all, even though it clearly increased production and reduced soil erosion. On the other hand, the discontinuous terraces required a good deal of management and maintenance, evidently more than local people wanted to invest. Project planners decided instead that more use should be made of individual basins for tree planting, a form of treatment that is relatively cheap and reasonably effective in preventing erosion. Most important, it requires little of a farmer's time for its upkeep.
There was also concern that growers would not maintain improvements after the demonstration ended. Farmers in demonstration areas were heavily subsidized to install terraces and similar construction works. They also obtained seedlings free of charge and fertilizer at reduced cost. When full-scale watershed development begins, the Jamaican government will not be able to afford subsidies at the present scale and this may discourage some farmers.
It is also clear that better marketing outlets will have to be created if there is to be an incentive for higher production. Project planners felt that these could be provided through already existing Jamaican Agricultural Societies, which could also help supply fertilizers, seeds, and chemicals.
Despite problems, however, planners were confident that six of the nine watershed projects, when funded, will bring about major improvements in the area.
Guatemala
receives aid
Model
convinces farmers
USAID also carries out assistance programmes. They are designed, among other things, to help the people of certain developing countries with soil and water conservation and watershed improvement projects. A major focus for USAID development assistance is the alleviation of hunger, malnutrition, and starvation in developing countries through programmes to increase and sustain the productivity of small farmers. Emphasis is given to the poorest countries and to those committed to helping their rural poor participate in development.
On resource projects, USAID frequently contracts with professional employees of the USDA's Soil Conservation Service (SCS), who volunteer to work for a time in a developing country. Recent AID projects involving SCS people were in Haiti, Nepal, and Peru, among others. SCS employees - and some who have retired, too - also lend their experience to other countries under a variety of other bilateral agreements and as part of FAO teams.
Because of the long experience of the USA in soil conservation, many trainees from other countries spend time there each year, working in SCS field offices and attending universities. In 1981, some 200 trainees from 35 countries received training from SCS in the USA. The courses were financed by AID, FAO, or by their own governments.
An SCS expert arrived in Guatemala in early 1977 to help farmers in the highlands to develop a soil conservation programme. The work was financed by a loan from USAID.
Guatemalan government teams had determined that soil erosion on croplands throughout the area was at unacceptable levels. The project objectives were to provide adequate, simple soil conservation practices that could be passed by word of mouth, to eliminate runoff on the steep slopes from all but the worst storms, and to allow for water storage and time for infiltration to take place on farmland.
USAID team members set up a model to demonstrate the effect of rainfall on soil under four conditions: with bench terraces and mulch; contour planting; diversion ditches; and no land treatment at all.
After each demonstration, farmers were asked to select the practice they would like to use. They consistently selected terraces as their preferred conservation measure. Word of the demonstration passed quickly among people of the area.
To help farmers plan and lay out terraces, the USAID team developed simple, homemade tools, including an engineering level made from three strong corn stalks, native hemp, and a rock. Using this tool properly, a farmer could survey, design, build, and check terrace construction accurately enough to permit water infiltration to occur during most rains.
Farmers also learned to seed grasses on the steep terrace slopes and to use them for cattle feed or for mulch, which was piled on top of the soil around plants, Mulch had to be thick enough to prevent weed growth and conserve moisture. It also protected the soil.
In 1978 and 1979, some 550 Guatemalan farmers under USAID guidance constructed more than 230 hectares of terraces by hand. All terraces withstood two rainy seasons well. Interviews with farmers revealed that using bench terraces increased average yields of maize 141 percent; potatoes, 98 percent; wheat, 81 percent; and beans, 83 percent, compared with yields when no conservation treatment at all had been applied.
Sweden assists Kenya government
Provides training for field force
Several European countries also provide conservation assistance to developing countries, both as individual governments and through such multilateral organizations as the European Development Fund and the FAO. The Swedish International Development Agency ( SIDA), for example, is one of several agencies assisting Kenya with agricultural problems. Since 1974, SIDA has been helping Kenya develop and strengthen its programme of soil conservation.
Present population of Kenya is about 14 million, and its growth rate is about 3.5 percent a year, one of the highest in the world. More than 85 percent of the nation's people live in rural areas, and most of them make their living from agriculture.
Population pressures have opened up many steep, marginal lands for cultivation of food crops and for animal production. Trees have been cut indiscriminately. Little consideration has been given by new settlers to critical soil erosion, although Kenya's topography, soils, and pattern of rainfall make it very susceptible to damage.
Provides training for field force
Since SIDA began its collaboration with Kenya, 2-week training courses in soil conservation techniques have been held for about half of the government's 4500 technical assistants and for hundreds of technical and administrative officers. The objective is to train all of them. Each course includes practical experience under field conditions to develop a trainee's ability to apply the techniques he has been taught.
A detailed, illustrated booklet of 200 pages, Soil Conservation in Kenya, describes techniques that can be used by small-scale farmers using labour-intensive methods. Supplements are being prepared continuously to guide field extension workers.
The interests and proposals of SIDA cover nearly every facet of resource use in Kenya. Current recommendations include integration of forestry and agricultural development activities into a single small watershed programme; expansion of nurseries to include forest tree species useful for agro-forestry; trials of new farming systems in hilly areas; new institutional arrangements, such as storage facilities, and major improvements in dairy herds. SIDA also proposes regular improvements in the size and quality of the field extension unit, already one of the best in Africa.
Even with the help of SIDA, FAO, and other countries and organizations, Kenya faces a long, uphill fight to improve resource management, proving again that it is much easier to cause soil erosion that to cure it.
Another example of help from the individual nations of Europe is the Federal Republic of Germany, which not only contributes to multilateral organizations, but also gives direct assistance to other countries through the German
Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ ) . A non-profit, state-owned company formed in 1975, GTZ provides expert help in a wide range of fields, including agriculture, forestry, and rural development. GTZ participates in projects that are financed by official German development funds and in projects in which payment comes from the developing country.
At the last count, GTZ had participated in more than 1600 projects in 90 countries and had a field staff of 1300, augmented by 800 people from GTZ consultant firms. Like FAO, GTZ believes firmly in the value of multidisciplinary teams, with members thoroughly informed about local conditions. That is because answers to problems of soil mismanagement usually cannot be solved with simple applications of conservation practices. They are much more complex than that.
A case in point is the experience of a GTZ team in the midlands of Nepal, where severe soil erosion occurs as a direct consequence of heavy population pressure.
Overgrazing in the area leads to destruction of the remnants of forest, which are also damaged by repeated lopping of branches for fodder. Crops are grown on steep slopes, and more slopes are formed when roads are built. Soils are highly erodible, and terraces, where they exist, are built with a slope and are always subject to erosion. The bare soil washes easily during three months of intense monsoon rains. Diversion of crop-growing to other areas is out of the question; the whole region is overpopulated.
Recommendations of GTZ scientists for reducing soil loss and helping grow enough food for local people call for a number of concurrent activities. They include:
It would be helpful if the number of goats were reduced, so that forests would not be used for fodder, but it seems this may not be possible.
GTZ experience in Nepal has led to the conclusion that soil loss caused by bad cultivation methods cannot be remedied by the soil scientist alone. It demands the cooperation of geographers, agriculturalists, biologists, water engineers, animal breeders, economists, and sociologists. Together, they could explore the complexity of the soil as a totality and as the basic factor for the production of food.