PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID)

CONCEPT STAGE

Report No.: AB2997

Project Name / Agricultural Services and Producer Organizations Project (ASPOP) – Additional Financing for Scaling up
Region / AFRICA
Sector / General agriculture, fishing and forestry sector (50%); Agricultural extension and research (20%); Crops (15%); Agricultural marketing and trade (15%)
Project ID / P105155
Borrower(s) / GOVERNMENT OF MALI
Implementing Agency
Ministry of Agriculture
PASAOP coordination
Bamako, Mali

Environment Category / [ ] A [X] B [ ] C [ ] FI [ ] TBD (to be determined)
Date PID Prepared / March 20, 2007
Estimated Date of Appraisal Authorization / April 2, 2007
Estimated Date of Board Approval / May 24, 2007

1.  Key development issues and rationale for Bank involvement

The original Credit supporting the ASPOP, in the amount of SDR34.2 million (US$43.5 million equivalent) was approved on December 11, 2001 and became effective on August 21, 2002. It was designed to help the Government of Mali address institutional issues and objectives as part of its rural development strategy. The ASPOP was seen as instrumental to achieve sector reforms, to lay institutional foundations for more effective intervention in the agricultural sector and to establish a network of producer organizations and advisory services. The Bank had and still has a comparative advantage in these institutional reforms based on its long-term involvement in the sector policy dialogue.

The ASPOP has been rated satisfactory all along its implementation period. It has succeeded in helping agricultural institutions to move from a state-led and top-down management of agriculture to the promotion of demand-driven services. Research institutions are better organized, more responsive to producers’ needs and more open to international collaboration. Extension services are more demand-driven and private providers are emerging. Producer organizations (POs) have improved their legitimacy and credibility. They have been empowered to effectively participate in policy dialogue and strategy formulation.

Institutional reforms: despite delays in reforming the Ministry of Rural Development, most of the planned activities have been successfully completed with significant achievements with regard to transferring non core public functions to the private sector. For instance, sanitary mandate and artificial insemination have been delegated to private veterinaries; public entities are no more involved in production or commercialization related activities; seeds and seedlings multiplication has been transferred to producer organizations. While refocusing on their core functions, public services have been instrumental to work closely with various stakeholders to elaborate a rural communication strategy and agricultural training strategy.

Cotton sector reform: In addition, the project has been supporting the policy dialogue on cotton sector reforms by commissioning strategic studies on sector organization and management, on price setting mechanisms, on advisory services for cotton producers or on communication strategies for instance. It also helped develop a training program for cotton producer leaders and provided the national cotton producer association with two high level advisers to support them in their dialogue with the Government, donors and the ginning companies. Despite delays due to political hesitation, the cotton sub-sector reform is now on track towards privatization.

Demand-driven financing mechanisms: thanks to the new approaches promoted by the project, research and extension programs are identified with producers to better match their needs and they are implemented on performance-based contracts. Up to date, research institutions are conducting more that 90 applied research programs (based on farmers demands), while strategic programs under implementation have increased from 37 in 2002 to 92 in 2006. Extension agents have signed 10,175 advisory service contracts with producer organizations and 84 private providers for agricultural advisory service have been promoted through the implementation of 275 performance-based contracts. The umbrella national producer organization has successfully set up a specific financing mechanism for capacity building micro-projects for regional and local organizations. Up to date, 1,620 projects have been financed to the benefit of grassroots producer associations for a total amount of US$2.8 million.

As detailed hereafter, the proposed additional financing will allow for scaling-up institutional reforms successfully promoted during the project, to achieve more tangible results and increase its impact on the ground.

2.  Proposed objective(s)

The objective of the ASPOP project is to establish an institutional framework conducive to the efficient delivery of agricultural services to producers, by supporting the decentralization of core public services, promoting private sector participation and by empowering producer organizations. The project was organized in four components: (A) reforming public services and reorganizing the Ministry of Rural Development; (B) improving the efficiency, relevance and sustainability of the national agricultural research system; (C) improving the efficiency, relevance and sustainability of the national agricultural extension system; (D) empowering producers and promoting their organizations.

The proposed additional financing will allow for scaling-up institutional reforms successfully promoted during the project, especially in terms of improving agronomic research performance, promoting demand-driven extension services and empowering producer organizations. Without changing its development objectives and its implementation modalities, the project will expand its activities in the field of technology transfer to achieve more tangible results and increase its impact on the ground.

3.  Preliminary description

The objective of the proposed additional financing is to scale up project achievements beyond institutional reforms, promoted so far towards demand-driven and accountable agricultural services, by increasing and broadening ASPOP impact in terms of technology transfers to producers. The emphasis will thus be put on consolidating and expanding technology transfer mechanisms between research, extension and POs. This is consistent with the ASPOP development objective, especially the sub-objectives of “consolidating and expanding the technology generation and transfer system on a demand-driven basis”.

Technology transfer activities will target the following specific areas: seed production (potatoes plant multiplication); livestock (goat milk production); small scale village irrigation; water management (vegetable production); productivity increase (cowpeas production); post-harvest operation (small scale processing and improved storage techniques). Innovations will concern production techniques, water management practices and post-harvest technologies used at the farm level, as well as public equipments, technologies and infrastructure managed by producer associations or water user associations. Financing mechanisms and implementation arrangements set up by ASPOP will be used to confirm their relevance and efficacy. This will contribute to strengthen research/extension/POs linkages for a better and broader technology dissemination.

The additional financing will also give the opportunity to consolidate key activities specific to each component. The Ministerial component (A) will complete the design of public services reorganization, including the redistribution of human resources among regional and central levels. Then implementation will be undertaken in the framework of the next PRSC. The research component (B) will complete some key strategic and demand-driven research programs and will strengthen its regional collaborative programs through an initial contribution to the West African Agricultural Productivity Project (WAAPP). The extension component (C) will expand the test for the transfer of extension activities to private operators and will develop new approaches of on-farm field trials as a contribution to strengthen research/extension/POs linkages.

The producer organizations component (D) will move forward with capacity-building for farmer leaders by supporting the elaboration of 3-year and multi-donor action plans for regional agricultural chambers. The financing mechanism for capacity-building projects for grassroots POs will be renewed but eligibility criteria will be revised to stimulate the preparation of more impacting, income-generating and productivity-oriented projects. New capacity building programs will be developed to support national POs, especially the newly formed cotton producer cooperatives in the perspective of the cotton sector privatization.

No major changes would be introduced but the proposed activities will initiate major changes that will be introduced in the design of a new operation: (i) transfer of support to public services into budgetary support (PRSC2); (ii) stronger focus on productive investments (technology dissemination and agricultural practices intensification, processing and trading of agricultural products), and (iii) consolidation of the different demand-driven financing mechanisms into a national agricultural development fund as prescribed in the new agricultural framework law (as a national and multi-donor financing mechanism for the sector). Implementation arrangements will remain unchanged. The result framework will be revised to reflect additional outcomes expected through the scaled-up activities.

4.  Safeguard policies that might apply

[Guideline: Refer to section 5 of the PCN. Which safeguard policies might apply to the project and in what ways? What actions might be needed during project preparation to assess safeguard issues and prepare to mitigate them?]

The project has no unresolved fiduciary, environmental, or other safeguard problems. The proposed additional financing will not raise the environmental category of the project nor trigger any new safeguards. The existing Environmental Management Plan (EMP) will continue to be applied. To date, compliance with the EMP has been satisfactory.

The appraisal mission will review the existing Environment Management Plan, including its Pest Management Plan, to check if it is still appropriate and up to date. Its application so far by the Ministry of Agriculture and producer organizations will be assessed as well. If needed, recommendations will be provided for a better monitoring and a strict application of safeguards policies as the project will expand its technology transfer activities and productive investments.

5.  Tentative financing

Source: / ($m.)
BORROWER/RECIPIENT / 0
International Development Association (IDA) / 17
Total / 17

6.  Contact point

Contact: Olivier Durand

Title: Senior Agricultural Specialist.

Tel: (202) 458-8921

Fax: (202) 473-8229

Email: