Outline of the Project

Project Title

Horticultural Farmers' Profitability Improvement Project in the Eastern Region of the Republic of El Salvador

Subject

Agricultural/Rural Development

Date of R/D Signed

February 4th, 2014

Project Site

Horticultural farmers groups in the Eastern Region of El Salvador (Usulután, San Miguel, Morazán, La Unión)

Term of Cooperation

2014/5/31 - 2018/5/30

Implementing Organization

Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock

Background

In the Republic of El Salvador (hereinafter referred to as "El Salvador"), the agriculture sector represents 12.0% of the total GDP in 2015, and 18.8% of economically active working population was engaged in agriculture in 2014. In the Eastern Region, there is less growth of economy in comparison with other regions and many farmers are small scales who mainly engage in subsistence farming. Since small scale farmers do not have enough cultivation techniques and are hard to access to the financial services, those farmers are still poor. Therefore, this area is one of the poorest regions in El Salvador and it is considered that improvement of farmers' livelihood is essential to solve the poverty in the Eastern Region.

Considering such situation, MAG implemented "Project for Small Farmers Support in the Eastern Region" (hereinafter referred to as "PROPA") in cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (hereinafter referred to as "JICA") from 2008 to 2012. Through the activities of this technical cooperation, MAG made efforts to achieve following goals; (1) strengthening institutional capacity to develop cultivation techniques, and (2) improving methods for dissemination. As a result of the project, environmentally sustainable production techniques have been introduced, improving productivity through farming associatively, lowering costs through the use of local resources and the joint purchase of inputs.

Even though the achievement of PROPA was at satisfactory level, the sale destinations of the products that produced by the farmers targeted in PROPA and the Eastern Region are still limited. There is a need to improve the agricultural production marketing system in the Eastern Region. For this reason, the Government of El Salvador requested a new project with the aim of strengthening the relationship between farmers and markets.

Purpose

• Overall goal
  Agricultural profitability of the horticultural farmers in the Eastern Region is increased.
• Project Purpose
  Agricultural profitability of the target horticultural farmers groups is increased.

Outputs

1. The target farmers groups' capacity to respond to the market is improved through strengthening relationship between farmers groups, supermarkets, and other sale destinations.
2. Effective cultivation techniques to respond to the market are adopted by the target farmers.

Project Activities

1-1	To conduct the baseline survey to understand the actual situation of vegetable sales channels commonly used by the target farmers groups by the Agribusiness Division.
1-2	To participate in the training course designed for the improvement of agriculture products commercialization, including activities such as contract cultivation, branding, farmers grouping, promotion of local consumption for local consumption by the target farmers groups, supermarket staff, and the staff of the Agribusiness Division.
1-3	To make action plans to improve commercialization of the agriculture products by the farmers, supermarket and the staff of the Agribusiness Division who participate the training in Activity 1-2.
1-4	To implement the action plan which is planned in the Activity 1-3 by the farmers, supermarket staff and the staff of the Agribusiness Division who participate the training in Activity 1-2.
1-5	To draw lessons learned from the implementation of the action plan by the farmers, supermarket and the staff of the Agribusiness Division who participate the training in Activity 1-2.

2-1	To conduct the baseline survey to identify the current situation of vegetable production techniques and farm management practices of the benefit farmers groups.
2-2	To carry out training regarding the cultivation techniques and farm management methods towards extension staff of the National Center for Agriculture and Forestry Technologies (hereinafter referred to as "CENTA") in the Eastern Region.

Inputs

Inputs Summary by Japanese Side

1. Dispatch of Experts
   • Chief Advisor/ Agricultural Products Commercialization Improvement (1)
   • Sub leader / Agricultural Products Commercialization Improvement (2)
   • Marketing Planning
   • Agricultural Techniques
   • Training course management / Farmer's Action Planning (1)
   • Project Coordinator / Farmer's Action Planning (2)
2. Training
   Counterpart training in Japan
3. Machinery and Equipment
   Machinery, equipment and other materials may be provided by JICA for implementation of the Project within the budgetary limitations. In case of importation, such machinery, equipment and other materials mentioned above will become property of GOES upon being delivered C.I.F. (cost, insurance and freight) to the El Salvador authorities concerned at the ports and/or airports of disembarkation.

Input Summary by El Salvador Side

1. Services of the counterpart personnel and administrative personnel;
2. Suitable office space with necessary equipment;
3. Supply or replacement of machinery, equipment, instruments, vehicles, tools, spare parts and any other materials necessary for the implementation of the Project other than the equipment provided by JICA within the budgetary availability of MAG;
4. Support with information to obtain medical service;
5. Credentials or identification cards (issued by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador);
6. Available data (including maps and photographs) and information related to the Project;
7. Running expenses necessary for the implementation of the Project;
8. Expenses necessary for transportation within El Salvador of the equipment as well as for the installation, operation and maintenance thereof; and
9. Necessary facilities to the JICA experts for the remittance as well as utilization of the funds introduced into El Salvador from Japan in connection with the implementation of the Project in case of the JICA El Salvador office cannot afford it.