The World Bank Lesotho Smallholder Agriculture Development Project (P119432)

Transcription

1 Public Disclosure Authorized AFRICA Lesotho Agriculture Global Practice IBRD/IDA Specific Investment Loan FY 2012 Seq No: 11 ARCHIVED on 03-Apr-2017 ISR26829 Implementing Agencies: Public Disclosure Authorized Key Dates Key Project Dates Bank Approval Date:10-Nov-2011 Planned Mid Term Review Date:09-Mar-2015 Original Closing Date:31-Mar-2018 Project Development Objectives Effectiveness Date:09-Mar-2012 Actual Mid-Term Review Date:23-May-2014 Revised Closing Date:31-Mar-2018 Public Disclosure Authorized Project Development Objective (from Project Appraisal Document) To increase marketed output among project beneficiaries in Lesotho's smallholder agriculture sector. Has the Project Development Objective been changed since Board Approval of the Project Objective? Yes Board Approved Revised Project Development Objective (If project is formally restructured)phrpdodel Increase in marketed output among project beneficiaries in Lesotho's smallholder agriculture sector and, in the event of an Eligible Crisis or Emergency, to provide immediate and effective response to said Eligible Crisis. Components Public Disclosure Authorized Name Increasing Agricultural Market Opportunities:(Cost $4.30 M) Increasing Market Oriented Smallholder Production:(Cost $3.80 M) Project Management:(Cost $1.40 M) Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC):(Cost $0.01 M) Overall Ratings Name Previous Rating Current Rating Progress towards achievement of PDO Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory Overall Implementation Progress (IP) Moderately Satisfactory Satisfactory 4/3/2017 Page 1 of 11

2 Overall Risk Rating Low Low Implementation Status and Key Decisions The mission is pleased to note the following progress regarding project implementation: The Competitive Grants Program (CGP) has continued to progress satisfactorily since the May 2016 mission. Overall, 379 grants have been awarded to registered associations and rural businesses as a result of seven rounds of selection, including 215 seventh round grants signed in December About 63% of the awarded grant amount of LSL 93.5 million has been disbursed to date. Some 30% of the awarded grants are in protected vegetable production (greenhouses and shade nets); 18% in pig production; 15% in various processing activities including poultry, pork, fruit and vegetables; 11% in wool and mohair; 8% in poultry; and 8% in seed and seedling production. Mission observations indicate that many grants are progressing well and beneficiaries are increasingly linked to markets including supermarkets and slaughter facilities. Women continue to play an important role in producer associations with the ratio of female members generally over 50%. The important technology transfer activities aimed to widen the impact to a larger audience have continued, with some 78 grants having held field days so far with more than 12,000 attendees, along with television, radio, various publications, exchange visits and signboards. Around 55 grants have been completed, and an independent evaluator has been contracted to assess the achievement, sustainability and financial performance of these grants. It is also notable that the PMU and CGP Secretariat have been very proactive in addressing problems and proposing solutions as they arise. The eighth and final round procedures have been started with a series of information workshops carried out in each district for potential applicants and service providers. A total of 622 proposals were submitted with 554 currently undergoing technical review and 60 expected to be funded. Market Linkage Development. Global Development Solution (GDS) presented the findings of the value chain studies in high-value cash crops and short-cycle livestock production to all stakeholders and the final report has been distributed to the districts. Preparation of value chain posters, leaflets, brochures, maps and district workshops is underway. The Market Information System (MIS) is now in place since the Wi-Fi and internet has finally been installed in the Department of Marketing and will be functional after training of staff in its use. Under mentoring services, the poultry mentor has been supporting CGP and AIP grant beneficiaries in poultry management and the Agri-Academy South Africa has been engaged to provide Business Management Training. In addition, to develop improved opportunities for better market access (information exchange platforms), at least six farmer and trader forums were held focusing on piggery and vegetable production and eleven round-tables have been held covering vegetable production, seedling production and piggery production in all four districts over the last year. Agriculture Investment Plans. Overall, 83 Productive Investment (PI) Groups from 32 AIP sub-centers are currently contracted for various implementation arrangements. Forty groups were contracted under round 1 of batch 2 and are now implementing the last milestones conducting Farmer Field Days as a prerequisite for technology transfer. Forty-two additional groups were contracted under round 2 of the same batch and are completing their first milestones, mainly on infrastructure development. It should be noted that an additional 16 groups were meant to get contracts with the project, under Batch 2 round 2. Currently, the target for Batch 2 has been revised down to 96 groups from the initial 128. The 96 groups have been targeted as a result of the initial planning where 3 sub-projects were earmarked from each of the 32 sub-centers, instead of the planned four per district. The percentage of contracted groups against the target in round 2 batch 2 varies by district. The speed of performance differs from district to district, and is affected by a number of factors including types of enterprises, level of appreciation of the beneficiary groups, intensity of technical guidance from the service-providers, and level of maturity of the groups. Against the new target, Botha-Bothe and Leribe have contracted the highest number of groups (23 and 21 respectively), Berea and Mafeteng are slightly behind with 19 groups each; the total corresponds to 86% of the target. Given the current trend, the mission is confident that the project will achieve 100% within the current financial year. Natural Resource Management. The drive during this implementation period under review has seen the NRM plans make significant progress, juxtaposed with the overall SADP investment implementation progress to date; and the PMU and its strategic partners at all levels need to be commended. The mission in May 2016 recommended that no new NRM window of financing under Batch 3, would take place; rather a consolidation of existing plans and an upscaling of technical expertise and supervisory support from the PMU and the extension staff at district level. This has been done, and although progress is still slow, significant strides in the four districts have been made. 28 Natural Resources Management Plans have been completed, and there has been noticeable progress in areas of soil conservation, fodder production, and water harvesting. Although significantly lower progress has been made under the NRM sub-component, as compared to the other SADP sub-components, the expenditure rate has risen to 26% in the past three months against a total budget of LSL 10,323,393. It is pleasing to note that the increase in expenditure during this period can directly be linked to increased technical capacity and support to the implementation of this sub-component within all four districts. Technology Packages. The first batch of smallholder technology packages in protected farming (vegetable production), fodder production, and smallscale irrigation technologies have been largely concluded, although the last milestones are still to be finalized including the feeding trials and technology transfer activities by the Rural Self-Help Development Association (RSDA). The drilling of the boreholes and installation of the tanks at the Berea and Botha-Bothe (Selomo) demonstration sites has been completed. Three new priority topics were identified by the Technical Working Group (TWG) for the 4/3/2017 Page 2 of 11

3 second batch of technology packages. These topics were piggery production, vegetable production under shade nets, and production of fertile eggs for broiler production. It is expected that implementation of the latter two packages will start in the first half of CERC. The design of the CERC was completed to allow the GoL to respond to the drought crisis via the re-allocation of undisbursed and uncommitted funds from the project. The component was assigned a budget of US$1.4 million and implementation began in January US$1.1M of the CERC funds were channeled through FAO to: (i) protect and improve agricultural livelihoods, (ii) engage in capacity development on climate smart food production techniques, (iii) protect livestock assets through animal health and (iv) address health & nutrition needs by promoting complementarities between Social Protection and Agricultural production. The remaining funds will go to replacing 22 wind damaged SADP tunnel structures (US$162,017) implemented by the PMU; with the balance (US$137,983) used to develop water harvesting for agricultural use to be implemented by MAFS (these activities will begin in April 2017). The Project Management Unit (PMU) has implemented three lessons learnt workshops in protected vegetable production, piggery production and marketing, and poultry production and hatchery management and an implementer s workshop in September The objective of these workshops is to share experiences, learn lessons and improve implementation with participants including beneficiaries and district-level, Ministry and PMU staff. Further, a district account workshop was undertaken to assist the Ministry of Forestry procurement process in the implementation of NRM. The audited financial statement for 2015/16 was also submitted by the due date of 30 September Under the M&E activities, the PMU engaged Puisano (Pty) Ltd to undertake the Household Survey. Data collection has been done and is in the process of being analyzed. Overall, the PMU has been very proactive in addressing issues and proposing solutions. Notably, the pace of withdrawal applications has picked up substantially with 8 applications granted amounting to almost US$ 2.7 million in the last six months. Procurement: The mission noted that the PMU had satisfactorily addressed the issue raised in the mission of November The mission reviewed the updated procurement plan and noted the inclusion of the various CERC activities. The PMU was requested to in addition source CVs of potential candidates for the Environmental and Social Specialist from the Metolong Authority and the Roads Directorate both of whom had recently engaged experts in this area. The SADP Procurement Officer was requested to find a suitable training program at ESAMI or other similar institutions that she could attend before the end of the financial year. Procurement ISR rating is Satisfactory and the implementing agency risk rating is Moderate. Financial Management (FM): The mission reviewed the FM arrangements currently in place at the project and assessed their continuing adequacy and concluded that they are adequate. The project made a follow up on the May 2016 request to increase the disbursement ceiling to USD 2 million to meet the demands of grant disbursements. The mission noted that FM had approved the request in principle and internal processes need to be followed in order to conclude the process. The mission also reviewed the financial grant management processes and concluded that the processes are adequately followed. The grant agreements were signed, first disbursements were released according to the signed agreements, and second tranche of disbursements were made after accounting for the first disbursement. The review was based on round four and round seven. The rounds were selected on sample basis. Risks Systematic Operations Risk-rating Tool Risk Category Rating at Approval Previous Rating Current Rating Political and Governance -- Moderate Moderate Macroeconomic -- Low Low Sector Strategies and Policies -- Low Low Technical Design of Project or Program -- Moderate Moderate Institutional Capacity for Implementation and Sustainability -- Moderate Moderate Fiduciary -- Low Low Environment and Social -- Low Low Stakeholders -- Low Low 4/3/2017 Page 3 of 11

4 Other -- Low Low Overall -- Low Low Results Project Development Objective Indicators Direct project beneficiaries (Number, Core) Value , , , Date 10-Nov May Dec Mar-2018 Female beneficiaries (Percentage, Core Supplement) Value Household commercialization level in project areas (Percentage, Custom) Value Date 10-Nov May Dec Mar-2018 Change in total cash crop production (Tones/year, Custom) Value Date 30-Sep Mar /3/2017 Page 4 of 11

5 Comments This indicator was added during the project restructuring in July The baseline and target for this indicator will be collected in a minisurvey in late March 2017, and will be included in the Results Framework in the next ISR. Change in yields of major cash crops in the target area (Tones/year, Custom) Value Date 30-Sep Mar-2018 Comments This indicator was added during the project restructuring in July The baseline and target for this indicator will be collected in a minisurvey in late March 2017, and will be included in the Results Framework in the next ISR. Average change in smallholder livestock production in the target area (disaggregated by type). (Tones/year, Custom) Value Date 30-Sep Mar-2018 Comments This indicator was added during the project restructuring in July The baseline and target for this indicator will be collected in a minisurvey in late March 2017, and will be included in the Results Framework in the next ISR. Overall Comments Intermediate Results Indicators 4/3/2017 Page 5 of 11

6 Client days of training provided under the Competitive Grants Program Component (Number, Custom) Value , , , Client days of training provided : Female clients (Number, Custom Breakdown) Value , , , Client days of training provided : Male Clients (Number, Custom Breakdown) Value , , , If the CERC is triggered: number of beneficiaries benefiting from emergency response and recovery activities. (Number, Custom) Value , Date 28-Oct Mar /3/2017 Page 6 of 11

7 Number of new business contracts between farmer groups and the private sector as a result of the projects market facilitation activities. (Number, Custom) Value Date 28-Oct Mar-2018 Targeted beneficiaries who have adopted improved production technologies / farming practices in targeted areas (Number, Custom) Value , Female beneficiaries (Percentage, Custom Supplement) Value Targeted beneficiaries satisfied with improved performance of agricultural service providers (Percentage, Custom) Value /3/2017 Page 7 of 11

8 Clients days of training provided under the Agricultural Investment Plans Component (Number, Custom) Value , , , Date 10-Nov Jun Feb Mar-2018 Clients days of training provided : Male clients (Number, Custom Breakdown) Value , , , Date 10-Nov Jun Feb Mar-2018 Clients days of training provided : Female clients (Number, Custom Breakdown) Value , , , Date 10-Nov Jun Feb Mar-2018 Number of CGP projects completed that are commercially viable. (Number, Custom) Value Date 10-Nov Mar /3/2017 Page 8 of 11

9 Targeted beneficiaries recording better access to markets (Percentage, Custom) Value Farmers and traders in project districts who use public market information (Percentage, Custom) Value Date 10-Nov Nov Dec Mar-2018 Incremental net value of marketed production of smallholders in targeted sub-centers in targeted sub-centers (Amount(USD), Custom) Value 107, , ,600, Innovative and viable agricultural business initiatives demonstrated with a minimum satisfactory rating (Number, Custom) Value Overall Comments 4/3/2017 Page 9 of 11

10 Data on Financial Performance Disbursements (by loan) Project Loan/Credit/TF Status Currency Original Revised Cancelled Disbursed Undisbursed Disbursed P IDA Effective XDR % Key Dates (by loan) Project Loan/Credit/TF Status Approval Date Signing Date Effectiveness Date Orig. Closing Date Rev. Closing Date P IDA Effective 10-Nov Nov Mar Mar Mar-2018 Cumulative Disbursements Restructuring History Level 1 Approved on 26-Jul-2016 Related Project(s) 4/3/2017 Page 10 of 11

11 P Lesotho Smallholder Agriculture Development Project Additional Financing 4/3/2017 Page 11 of 11