Rural Developmet

 

 

AN INTEGRATED RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT DESIGNED TO REDUCE RURAL POVERTY AND ENCOURAGE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

 

THE PROJECT

The Appraisal Report of the St. Lucia Rural Enterprise Project published in 1995, cited the principal problem facing resource-poor rural households in St. Lucia and other Windward Island States as their over-reliance on bananas as a source of income. At the same time, the traditionally protected and secure banana market in the United Kingdom was becoming increasingly uncertain, and impending market liberalization within the context of the European Union threatened to force many marginal producers out of production.

To address this issue, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) developed a strategy for the Windward Island States to help resource-poor rural households adjust to changing economic conditions. Out of this strategy The St. Lucia Rural Enterprise Project (SL-REP) was born. Its main objective to offer smallholders and other resource-poor rural households, particularly women-headed households, the option to broaden their income base and reduce risk through the encouragement of a wide range of productive activities. This objective supported the Government of St. Lucia (GOSL) policies regarding national economic diversification and support for farmers marginalized by the changing banana industry.

The Project activities would be concentrated in the South of the island covering Canaries, Choiseul, Laborie, Vieux Fort and Micoud in an attempt to maximize the use of available funds.The project would be of a six-year duration and began in May 1997 and is expected to end in May 2003. The total costs of the Project are estimated at US$ 4.7 million. IFAD will provide 46% of the funding, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) 20%, the GOSL will provide counterpart funding representing 33% of project costs and project beneficiaries in-kind contribution are expected to be 1% of total Project costs.

 

PROJECT COMPONENTS

 

The St. Lucia Rural Enterprises Project comprises of five principal components and all project activities would fall under one of these components based on the type of activity. A brief description of these components follow: -

 

(a)     Production Component – to expand viable income earning opportunities for poor rural households in crop and livestock production, fish processing and development of other microenterprises.

 

(b)     Marketing Component – to improve the national capacity for generating and disseminating marketing information and market promotion and to strengthen the capability for meeting quality requirements of all markets on a sustainable basis.

 

(c)     Credit Component – to assist rural households to access credit for crop and livestock production, establishment or expansion of micro-enterprises including agro-processing and other non-farm activities.

 

(d)     Community Development and Mobilization Component – to provide a mechanism for community-level decision-making regarding allocation of Project resources and effective beneficiary participation in the implementation and operation of the Project.

 

(e)     Project Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation – to provide a team of consultants to manage the implementation of the Project effectively and to transfer skills to Project beneficiaries.

 

THE PARTICIPATORY EXPERIENCE

The St. Lucia Rural Enterprise Project has just completed its third year of operation. Several projects have made serious headway, but some others are still weak and further attention is undoubtedly required if the desired objectives are to be achieved. The reasons for the success or failure of any one Project activity are varied and in some cases complex and multi-faceted. Although a meticulous analysis of these factors are not the focus of this article, it must be said here that their proper documentation is of critical importance not only for the improvement in implementation of future Project activities, but also for consultation and use in the design of future rural development projects in St. Lucia and in the region as a whole.

 

Experience has shown that for rural development concepts to take root in resource poor rural communities, some level of community organization is required. Community-level organization is weak in most rural communities in the island. It was therefore understood, that if Project activities were to have any real impact on the poor rural households that it intended to target, that some form of local management team was to be created. This realization brought about the birth of the Community Implementation and Advisory Committee or commonly referred to by its acronym, CIAC.  These Committees are basically local decision-making bodies which in a sense can be characterized as extensions of the Project Coordination Team (PCT). They are responsible for identifying potential beneficiaries for Project assistance, identifying community projects to further the development of their communities, community mobilization, promotion of SL-REP at the community level and also provide the Project Coordination Team with general information to guide the decision-making process for activities in their respective communities.

 

The extent of the importance of the CIACs’ to the whole rural development initiative can best be highlighted in the words of the Project Coordinator Mr. David Demacque when he states that, “with the existence of the CIACs the triangle is now inverted, they representing the larger community group whose directives based on the specific needs of their respective communities, is passed down to the Project Coordination Team, who in turn can put the necessary structures in place to see that these needs are met.”

 

To date thirteen (13) CIACs have been created in the Project target region to represent the large number of communities in the south and are at various stages of organization and strengthening since they were not all formed at the same time rather over a two-year period. These CIACs can be found operating from the following areas: - Mon Repos, Fond St. Jacques, Canaries, Bouton, Choiseul West, Choiseul East, Saltibus, Laborie, Banse, Grace, Vieux Fort North, Desruisseaux and Ti Rocher. Some of these CIACs are very active and have, or are currently undertaking various projects which will greatly enhance the lives of peoples in their respective communities. The Choiseul East CIAC have been instrumental in the construction of lockers for the fishermen of River Doree and this would undoubtedly reduce the high incidence of theft of their fishing gear and equipment which prevailed in the past.

 

 

The Fond St. Jacque, Saltibus and Canaries CIACs have been active in mobilizing their communities to construct ecotourism trails. The Project has provided training to several tourguides to work on the Canaries ecotourism trail. The Fond St. Jacque-Saltibus trail is still under construction. These activities are funded by the Project, but for the most part are carried out by members of the respective communities through CIAC mobilization and would no doubt provide a much-needed source of income for these communities. To date CIAC membership stands at 320 with 70% of that number being female. Our experience is showing that women are at the forefront of these community development initiatives.

 

DEMOSTRATION AND TRAINING

 

SL-REP have planned the construction/renovation of Community Resource Centers (CRC) in Mon Repos, La Maze, Mongouge and Fond St. Jacque. The intention here is to create a forum for technology transfer and training of community members in these areas that would lead to the kind of community empowerment that lies at the heart of the Project. The Project has also taken on the revamping of the Delcer Irrigation canal. This project is projected to significantly increase the productive capacity of farming households in the areas which the canal serves. A local Canal Management Group has been put in place to oversee the operations of the Canal. The Project also emphasizes Land Resource Management and encourages the use of soil conservation measures among community members and especially among agricultural credit beneficiaries. The Project has financed the setting up of demonstration plots of yams on hillsides in Regions 2, 3, 4 and 5. Dasheen demonstration plots are planned for the Fond St. Jacque area. It is expected that farmers visiting these sites would learn proper agronomic practices for the hillside cultivation of these crops and also appreciate the benefits of actual soil conservation measures.

 

Through CIAC mobilization and other Project initiatives, various training programmes are sponsored by the Project for community members. These include Cake Decorating, Business Skills Training, Group Dynamics and Credit Management and requests for many other types of training have been received, of which the Project will attempt to carry out. Many of these training courses target single-parent women heads of households. Results have been very encouraging and several participants, especially from the cake decorating courses have been able to augment their household income through direct application of their newly acquired skills. The Project hopes that the economic empowerment of these women would engender further community development and improve the overall standard of living in these communities.

 

 

The Project understands that one of the main factors mitigating against involvement in productive activities among rural folk is the lack of credit facilities, and where they do exist, the rural poor feel alienated to the extent that they do not approach these institutions for credit even if they are eligible. Under the Project’s Credit Component, the entire process of accessing credit has been simplified and the Project works closely with the Choiseul, Laborie and Saltibus Credit Unions. These Credit Unions have received assistance from the Project to strengthen their institutions. The NFCCU have also been given a proposal for Institutional Strengthening and Agri-Business Development and bids have been sent out to five consultants to undertake the training. To date a number of agriculture ventures and microenterprises have benefited from this initiative. These in turn have served to provide increase employment in the target region and improve the livelihood of these beneficiaries and their families where they have been successful. But as we shall see later, this initiative have not always functioned the way it was perceived in the appraisal report and there are a number of factors influencing its overall direction. The Project has strived to engender a business approach into these loan beneficiaries ensuring that all new loan beneficiaries undertake a business skills training course before any monies are disbursed.

 

MOVING   THE   MARKETING   BOTTLENECKS

 

The Cassava crop is extensively cultivated in the Project’s target region, and has been identified as having the potential to be a good alternative crop to bananas by the Project. A Cassava survey was carried out to determine the actual status of Cassava production in the South of the island and also to give some indication as to the potential for large-scale production and processing of the crop. The idea is to establish a Cassava Processing Plant in the Vigé-Cacoa area. A U.S. base company, Compatible Technologies Incorporated (CTI), will largely finance this project while SL-REP will provide counterpart funding. This facility is expected to reduce significantly the length of time taken to process cassava into farine and other products and also eliminate the tediousness of the process. The Plant is expected to be in operation before the end of this year.

 

Probably one of the biggest problems facing local producers is the difficulty in marketing their produce. SL-REP has recognized this deficiency and the Project’s policy in all productive activities is one of linking the producer to the buyer. The Project will not encourage the production of any good or service without first assuring that there is an outlet for it. This non-traditional approach have brought about several breakthroughs for the Project. The Fresh Produce Exporters Association (FPEA) has been able to secure a commercial agreement with a major fresh produce distributor in Miami, and were also able to secure cargo space on two major airlines, Fine Air and Virgin Atlantic through a trade mission sponsored by the Project. Also the project has worked at institutional capacity building of the Praslin Seamoss Farmers Association, and recently a market was identified in Miami for Seamoss. Negotiations are presently ongoing to fine-tune a commercial arrangement. These initiatives ensures an influx of valuable foreign exchange and also ensures the creation of local employment in these activities.

 

The Project is also sensitizing people to the consumption of rabbit meat, principally through its rabbit tasting exercises at CIAC and other community activities. So successful have been these rabbit sensitization campaigns, that the demand for rabbit meat are currently far outstripping supply with several new restaurants demanding rabbit meat.

 

The Project has placed itself in a good position to answer to this rapid surge in demand for rabbit meat. Under its livestock sub-component, provisions were made for the genetic improvement of rabbits, sheep and goats on the island. Two prolific and high meat value breeds of rabbits, the California White and the New Zealand White have been imported with the aim of multiplication and distribution to farmers. These animals are reared at the Beausejour Agricultural Complex and the first batch of twenty-three (23) rabbits was issued in June of this year to farmers and Schools in the South. The Project understands its target group, which comprises principally of rural poor households and has therefore developed two separate schemes for issuing of rabbits. One scheme is the Revolving Animal Fund Scheme (RAF) where poor beneficiaries who cannot afford to pay for the rabbits will be given a pair with the responsibility of returning the pair after they have given birth to make them available to another household. Ten (10) rabbits have been issued under this scheme so far. The other scheme is the Direct Purchase Scheme where the animals are sold under full ownership to eligible farmers. Thirteen rabbits (13) have been issued under this scheme so far. A similar scheme is planned for Sheep and Goats and a large number of Barbados Black Belly Sheep have been procured as initial Breeding Stock, and a selected number of Anglo-Nubian goats will be arriving later this year. The genetic improvement of local stock will lead to increase meat production and it is hoped will improve the economic situation of many poor rural households.

 

UP – HILL TASKS

though the Project has enjoyed some successes during its short life, it has not always been a bed of roses. Obstacles nevertheless arise from time to time and have to be dealt with if Project objectives and maximum possible benefits are to be derived from the Project activities. In the Credit Component of the Project there appear to be an abnormally high level of delinquency among loan beneficiaries referred to the Credit Unions by the Project. There appear to be a number of reasons for the inability of loan beneficiaries to make good on their loan payments, some of them justifiable while others are not. A number of projects have failed and are not generating income because the natural agents have taken its toll on some and rendered them unproductive. But there is also the issue of blatant neglect by loan beneficiaries. The reasons for this neglect are not quite clear, but from our standpoint many of them may lie in the initial screening process of these individuals. The issue of beneficiaries putting up some form of collateral has been suggested informally by the Credit Unions but this initiative defeats a fundamental underlying principal of the Project which is the targeting of resource-poor rural communities many of whose members may not have any collateral and are in dire need of assistance. What is evident here however, is that this problem is continuing to loom over the Credit Component of the Project and much effort should be directed towards an acceptable solution if this component is to continue to provide the service it potentially can to hundreds of impoverish rural farming households in the Project’s target region.

 

In the case of the CIACs, it can also be said that although some CIACs function well and their involvement at the community level have produced and are continuing to produce many tangible benefits, others have not faired so well. The factors for the inefficacy of some CIACs are varied, but among them one can cite, infighting for leadership roles, apathy towards communal work, and also, the fact that these Committees are voluntary and requires a high level of dedication to community and self to be an active member. The low level of social capital in some of these communities may also in itself be a contributing factor to the difficulties that these CIACs encounter in their operations.

Another critical problem is that participation and support from some key institutions has not been all that commendable. The Project relies heavily on established institutions with their framework to reach and monitor Project activities at the Community level, but the officers of some of these institutions have not been too cooperative and have seriously affected the match of activities in some areas. What makes this problem even more acute is the large number of simultaneous activities which the Project is undertaking at any given time and information from which is vital for the decision making process of the Project Coordination Team. It is understood that rural development is a complex issue. It is therefore imperative that all participating institutions carry out their role to their utmost best. The level of support from these institutions must be scrutinized and adjusted if full impact of many Project activities is to be realized.

OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE

The future outlook of the Project looks promising. In the face of impending moral, social and economic degradation, the Project is working confidently in the direction of achieving all of its objectives. However, a reduction in rural poverty and an improvement in the distribution of income among rural communities in the target region remain central to the ideology and focus of the Project Coordination Team. It is hoped that the St. Lucia Rural Enterprise Project will go a long way in setting the infrastructure for long-term sustainable socioeconomic development in the target region and in the country as a whole.

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