Project Name. PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) APPRAISAL STAGE Report No.: AB5462 Agricultural Technology and Agribusiness Advisory Services

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1 Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Project Name Region Sector Project ID GEF Focal Area Global Supplemental ID Borrower(s) Implementing Agency PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) APPRAISAL STAGE Report No.: AB5462 Agricultural Technology and Agribusiness Advisory Services AFRICA Agricultural extension and research (70%); Agricultural marketing and trade (20%); General agriculture, fishing and forestry sector (10%) P L-Land degradation P THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA Government of Uganda Uganda NAADS Secretariat Mukwasi House, Lumumba Ave. Kampala, Uganda Tel: Fax: NARO P.O. Box 295, Entebbe, Uganda Tel: Fax: /2 Environment Category [ ] A [X] B [ ] C [ ] FI [ ] TBD (to be determined) Date PID Prepared April 6, 2010 Date of Appraisal April 15, 2010 Authorization Date of Board Approval June 22, Country and Sector Background 1. Agriculture is a key sector of the Ugandan economy and features prominently among the top five priorities for public investment in the National Development Plan, Uganda s new fiveyear strategic framework for economic development. 1 Agriculture is also the centerpiece in the Prosperity for All Program, the vision driving the NDP. Recent analytical work highlights agricultural growth as a key determinant of the country s efforts to reduce poverty in the near future. It is within this framework that the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries (MAAIF) is designing the new Development Strategy and Investment Plan (DSIP) for the agricultural sector. The DSIP envisages a comprehensive Sector Wide Approach aligned with the principles and aspirations of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program, 1 The sector contributes nearly 20 percent of GDP, accounts for 48 percent of exports, and provides a large proportion of the raw materials for industry. Food processing alone accounts for 40 percent of manufacturing. The sector employs 73 percent of the population aged 10 years and older.

2 which has been endorsed by African governments, including the Government of Uganda (GoU). The DSIP focuses on four main intervention and investment areas, namely: (i) enhancing agricultural production and productivity; (ii) improving access to and sustainability of markets; (iii) creating an enabling environment for the agricultural sector; and (iv) undertaking institutional reforms and development in the agricultural sector. 2. Agriculture remains a mainstay of the Ugandan economy and directly accounts for 20 percent of gross domestic product. Despite its declining share in the economy, agriculture remains important for structural transformation through value addition, export growth, and employment. The performance of the agricultural sector greatly affects the majority of Ugandan people, especially the poor: 85 percent of the population and 70 percent of the poor live in rural areas and depend on agricultural activities for their livelihoods. Poverty has also decreased. The data on poverty reduction, which include rural Ugandans, show a significant reduction in poverty from 38 percent in 2002 to 31 percent in Food prices in Uganda have recently increased, but not as sharply as in neighboring countries. Uganda is increasingly seen as a potential breadbasket for East Africa. Declining poverty and stable food prices, in conjunction with rising food exports, suggest that agriculture is not stagnant. This conclusion is corroborated by findings from two National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) evaluation surveys, which show an increase in median real wealth per capita of about 10 percent (across all households surveyed) between 2004 and Similarly, the real gross value of agricultural production increased between 2004 and 2007 by 124 percent, and yields increased by 20 percent for maize, 12 percent for sweet potato, 9 percent for groundnuts, and 24 percent for millet although yields have decline for sorghum (12 percent), banana (7 percent), and beans (32 percent) Despite the progress made, agricultural productivity remains low for most smallholders. In the last 30 years, real growth in output was driven mainly by expansions in cultivated area and the labor force. Growth in total factor productivity was negative between 1991 and 2006, reducing the contribution of increased input use to agricultural output. The opportunities for opening up new land for agriculture are much reduced, even compared to 10 years ago. A rapidly growing population requires more food at lower prices, yet yields of most agricultural products remain low. These trends underscore the need for public investments to increase agricultural productivity. 4. Land is a key strategic resource for Uganda central to agricultural productivity, ecosystem stability, and climate resilience. Land constitutes over 50 percent of the value of items in the asset basket of poor Ugandans, yet current farming practices threaten soil fertility and prevent a significant share of agricultural potential from being realized. The soils of sub-saharan Africa lose considerable fertility through poor nutrient management. In Uganda this problem is particularly pronounced. Land degradation hotspots, in particular soil erosion and infertility, have been identified in the Southwestern Highlands, Lake Victoria Crescent, the northwest, and the eastern highlands, as well as the Cattle Corridor. In these areas it is estimated that nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous balances are less than 85, 75, and 10 kilograms per hectare per year. Soil erosion is estimated at above 5 tons per hectare per year. The problems of low crop 2 It should be noted that the NAADS evaluation surveys are not nationally representative; however, the findings provide some insight to the performance of agriculture in the sampled area

3 yields, declining soil fertility, and degraded soils, are also amplified by the increasingly variable climate. 5. A central pillar of the Government of Uganda s development strategy is to transform agriculture from a subsistence to an increasingly commercial endeavor. Wider commercialization of agriculture is constrained by several factors, including low productivity (complicated by the climate and natural resource issues mentioned previously), high transport costs, the lack of business skills in the sector, and weak linkages between small-scale farmers, other actors farther along the value chain, and rural financial institutions. These interacting factors keep agriculture at a low equilibrium. 6. Against this background, it is clear that a concerted effort by the government, private sector, and development partners is required to increase agricultural productivity and accelerate commercial agriculture in Uganda. Through a series of Poverty Reduction Support Credits, the World Bank has supported the development of a more conduce policy environment for agribusiness, including the improved management of public finance. The business climate has also improved through interventions of the Presidential Investors Round Table Initiative, the Private Sector Development Project II, and other interventions. As noted, the government also raised expenditures on roads with support from the International Development Association (IDA) and other development partners. The 2009 Public Expenditure Review developed a framework for sustainable and efficient expenditures on rural road infrastructure in Uganda. The framework gives priority to connecting rural areas with high agricultural potential and supporting intermediate modes of transport in rural areas. Lower transport costs and prices can be expected in Uganda, including its rural areas, and will have a tremendous positive impact on agricultural growth and commercialization. 7. The proposed Project will also address key constraints to agricultural commercialization. In particular, the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) would release more improved technologies and tailor them better to the needs of farmers along the continuum from subsistence to commercial production. The National Agricultural Advisory Services, working with Zonal Agricultural Research Development Institutes (ZARDIs), would make those technologies available to farmers and ensure they are adopted, providing feedback from the farmers to researchers. NAADS s advisory services would be differentiated to support farmers with different degrees of technical sophistication and market orientation. Advisory services would become more market-oriented and strategic to promote enterprises with market outlets in Uganda as well as in neighboring countries, in addition to overseas sales of traditional cash crops. NAADS will partner with the private sector to integrate small-scale farmers into formal value chains (for example, through outgrower schemes) and link farmers with rural finance institutions. NARO and NAADS will also capitalize on the emergence of new information and communication technologies and use them to support improved information exchange and feedback between farmers and researchers. 2. Objectives 8. The project development objective is to increase agricultural productivity and incomes of rural households by improving the performance of agricultural research and advisory service systems in Uganda. The project s key performance outcomes are changes in yields and

4 household agricultural incomes, use of improved agricultural technologies, percentage of targeted male and female smallholder farmers who are satisfied with agricultural research and advisory services, and share of marketed farm production. 9. The Global Environmental Objective is to enhance the environmental sustainability and resilience of agricultural production to land degradation and climate risks. Its success will be measured by land area with improved land and water management practices Rationale for Bank Involvement 10. The Government of Uganda recognizes the need to raise agricultural productivity and promote commercialization of agriculture by improving the quality of agricultural technology and agribusiness advisory services, scaling up those services, and pursuing a value-chain approach. The government also recognizes that research and advisory services must collaborate much more intensely to ensure effective transfer of technologies to farmers. Furthermore, raising agricultural productivity through better research and advisory services is a cost-effective response to the potential risks imposed by climate change and land degradation. Adaptation to climate change is easier when individuals have more resources at their command and operate in an economic environment with the flexibility to respond quickly to change. 11. Building on a strong legislative framework, IDA has been a major supporter of NARO and NAADS over the past 15 years. There is a strong rationale for continuing this support, given: (i) the high contribution of agricultural research and advisory services to agricultural growth, land productivity, ecosystem services, and climate change adaptation and mitigation; (ii) the strong commitment of the Government of Uganda through policies and investments in agricultural technology generation and dissemination; and (iii) the positive impact of the IDA s pro-active interaction and support to NARO and NAADS on the design and quality of research and advisory services in Uganda. 12. Full engagement of IDA and other development partners is critical to ensure that the large share of public resources devoted to agriculture continues to play its part in sustainably promoting pro-poor growth in Uganda. Development partners have been engaged with the government at the highest levels on key implementation issues concerning NAADS. This dialogue has resulted in adjustments to strengthen NAADS implementation and address the government s main concerns, including: (i) the mode of delivering extension services, including the use of government extension workers, the role of private service providers, and the role of research institutions; (ii) the role of NAADS in agro-processing, including the promotion of public private partnerships, the development and/or strengthening of higher-level farmer organizations, the introduction and promotion of specific technologies, and the facilitation of links along value chains; (iii) the progression of farmers along a continuum of farmer types, ranging from farmers focused solely on food security to market-oriented, commercializing, and nucleus farmers; and (iv) improving guidelines for implementation. All of these innovations build on core principles of the NAADS service delivery model. 3 As noted, the land management practices include (i) integrated soil nutrient management, (ii) soil and water conservation (low tillage, terracing, grass and contour bunds, land rehabilitation in four degraded watersheds, agroforestry, and woodlots), and (iii) small-scale irrigation and water harvesting, among others.

5 4. Description 13. The Project will support key activities along the commercialization continuum from research to extension to farmers through five components: (i) Strengthening the National Agricultural Research System; (ii) Enhancing Partnerships between Agricultural Research and Advisory Services; (iii) Strengthening the National Agricultural Advisory Services; (iv) Supporting Agribusiness Services and Market Linkages; and (v) Program Management. Component 1: Strengthening the National Agricultural Research System 14. Agricultural research is a core public good and will continue to play a critical role in productivity growth and improved competitiveness as a basis for the transformation of agriculture. To strengthen agricultural research, this component will provide support to the NARS through two subcomponents: (1.1) Technology Identification and Development and (1.2) Institutional Strengthening of the NARS. The first subcomponent will result in three specific outputs: (i) implementation of core national strategic and zone-specific research programs; (ii) non-core research priorities effectively addressed through competitive grants (CGs); and (iii) private technology introduction encouraged and accelerated. The second subcomponent will focus on strengthening the effectiveness and efficiency of the NARS by reinforcing its human, financial, physical (including infrastructural), and organizational capacity. This goal will be achieved by: (i) creating a critical mass of public and private research service providers with competences and capacities for managing and implementing client-oriented, demand-driven, and market-responsive research; (ii) providing adequate equipment, facilities, and transport for research; (iii) enhancing the governance of the Public Agricultural Research Institutes through effective stakeholder participation and research partnerships; and (iv) mobilizing sustained increases in funding for agricultural R&D. Component 2: Enhancing Partnerships between Agricultural Research and Advisory Services 15. NARO and NAADS recognize that effective and functioning linkages are crucial to achieve their expected joint outcomes and impact. This component will finance the development of programs and joint activities to facilitate NARO NAADS linkages and collaboration with other stakeholders, such as private research and advisory service providers, farmer fora, processors, and marketing agents. The main activities will be implemented through five subcomponents: (2.1) Joint Planning, Priority Setting, and Adaptive Research; (2.2) Sustainable Land Management; (2.3) Institutional and Human Capacity Strengthening; (2.4) Joint Results Framework/M&E; and (2.5) Joint ICT Applications. 16. The implementation of the component and subcomponent activities will follow the processes and mechanisms laid out in the NARO NAADS Partnership Framework. NARO and NAADS will join in articulating demands, setting priorities, conducting on-farm adaptive research, and implementing the joint results framework. This effort will entail formal mechanisms for joint processes and activities, strong multi-stakeholder involvement in priority setting and market-relevant research, a strong research advisory interface at the national and local levels, as well as PPPs through innovation platforms to guide relevant research and the effective uptake and implementation of research outputs. ATAAS would facilitate multi-

6 stakeholder innovation platforms to promote learning, foster wider communication and information sharing, and ensure stakeholder review of activities within farming systems and value chains, Component 3: Strengthening the National Agricultural Advisory Services 17. This component will support the delivery of agricultural advisory services. It will provide this support through three subcomponents: (3.1) Farmer Institutional Development (FID); (3.2) Technology Promotion and Farmer Access to Information; and (3.3) Technology Uptake Grants. The first subcomponent focuses on the core principle of NAADS, which is to empower farmers and strengthen their organizations. The second subcomponent supports the delivery of agricultural advisory services the main mandate of NAADS. The third provides two types of grants to farmer groups to support technology uptake and wider adoption: (i) grants to demonstrate and multiply food security enterprises and (ii) grants to demonstrate and promote the adoption of commercially promising or market-oriented enterprises. 18. A key principle of the NAADS design is farmer empowerment, and Farmer Institutional Development (FID) is thus a critical activity of NAADS. Besides being central to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of advisory services, farmer empowerment and FID are crucial to ensure that farmers, farmer groups, and farmer fora play the needed role in program governance. To ensure the accountability of the program, particularly of its implementers at the local level, farmer empowerment (through greater transparency, effective participation, and decision making) will be a central feature in the governance and anti-corruption action plan. 19. Strengthening farmers capacity to demand services and maintain control of the program will be top priority for ATAAS. Building on the achievements and lessons of NAADS Phase I, the process of FID would continue to strengthen farmers in their organized groups to leverage and take advantage of services offered through the program to enhance the productivity and profitability of their enterprises and improve their capacity to negotiate with other actors in their value chains. 20. The core mandate of NAADS is to promote technology and farmers access to information. Advisory services provide the push that allows farmers to benefit from better linkages to markets. Consolidating the achievements of NAADS Phase I, ATAAS would support initiatives by men and women farmers, working together in groups, to access agricultural advisory services from contracted service providers. Conditional grants would be channeled through subcounty governments to farmers fora to finance advisory service contracts. Services contracted under this mechanism would include technical advisory services for selected enterprises identified by famer groups, general agricultural advisory services, and advisory services for marketing and business planning. The process of subcounty enterprise selection would be well linked with the research system and other stakeholders, in particular the private sector, so as to be informed by prevailing market opportunities and conditions. 21. To facilitate productivity growth through the adoption of new technology or practices, in addition to technical advice, in Phase I NAADS provided support to improve farmers access to the technology and thus promote its uptake. A key lesson from Phase I is that different categories of farmers, based on their degree of sophistication and market orientation, have different needs.

7 For phase two, NAADS will differentiate its support to the different categories of farmers based on the principle of farmers progression to market orientation. NAADS objectives, such as farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing, access to new technologies, and market integration, will be implemented in line with the principle of farmer progression by targeting farmers from different categories to provide farmer learning platforms. Component 4: Supporting Agribusiness Services and Market Linkages 22. This component would support collaboration between agribusiness, farmers, advisers, and researchers to create viable, sustainable market and agribusiness linkages. This collaboration will be achieved through activities under two subcomponents: (4.1) Agribusiness Development Services and (4.2) Establishment of a Commercialization Challenge Fund. Building on a successful partnership model developed by NAADS, the program would use the market to pull farmers out of subsistence agriculture. The ultimate objective is to increase farmers participation in input and output markets to raise farm productivity and household incomes through enterprise and value chain development. The immediate objective is to increase the private sector s contribution to the agricultural economy by improving the efficiency and effectiveness with which value chains increase the profitability of enterprises undertaken by the poor. Component 5: Program Management 23. NAADS and NARO have their own governance and management structures as established by the NAADS Act (2001) and NARS Act (2005), respectively. This component will have two subcomponents: (5.1) NAADS Management and Coordination and (5.2) NARS Coordination and NARO Management. 24. The NAADS program is managed and coordinated by the NAADS Secretariat. Established institutional entities at all levels of government will be supported to coordinate and administer ATAAS activities managed by NAADS. At the national level, this support will include maintenance of the NAADS Board and Secretariat. The NAADS Board and Secretariat, in conjunction with MAAIF, will continue to manage the program as per the NAADS Act, setting standards through the issuance of operational guidelines, providing a regulatory framework for agricultural advisory service providers by setting and enforcing standards for qualification and performance, and developing model contracts. Activities at the district and subcounty levels are managed by local government, under the coordination of District and Subcounty NAADS Coordinators. These individuals will be supported to facilitate the program s farmer-led planning and implementation processes. They will also work closely with NARO and technical staff at the district level for quality assurance and technical support. These positions are mainstreamed into the local government structure, and they will support the facilitation, coordination, and oversight of service contracts, grants to farmer groups, and the Challenge Fund. This component will fund the running of the NAADS Secretariat and the program at the district and subcounty levels, including the provision of vehicles and equipment, employment contracts, training, program planning and reviews, program audits, and operating costs. 25. Agricultural research is coordinated and managed by NARO. The NARO Secretariat will implement ATAAS research activities through the NARS. The NARO Secretariat will be assisted to acquire the necessary physical facilities and infrastructure, as well as overhead and

8 operating costs, to develop a NARS-wide capacity and competencies development program for market-oriented research, environmental issues, gender mainstreaming, and working in multiinstitutional and inter-disciplinary teams. This program would strengthen policies, guidelines, standards, processes, quality control, and stakeholder capacity building. 5. Financing Source: ($m.) BORROWER/RECIPIENT International Development Association (IDA) Global Environment Facility (GEF) IFAD, DANIDA, and EU Total Implementation 26. MAAIF is the ministry responsible for the agricultural sector and shall have the overall national responsibility for the ATAAS program. The ATAAS program will be implemented within the framework of MAAIF s DSIP, with the Agricultural Sector Working Group providing development policy direction. The NARS program is governed by the NARS Act (2005), which reestablished NARO as the apex body responsible for policy, coordination, funding, and quality control of agricultural research in Uganda. The NARS Act transformed the agricultural research system from a predominantly public system to a pluralistic system, bringing on board a crosssection of research service providers including NARIs, ZARDIs, universities, other tertiary institutions, farmer associations, CSOs, the private sector, and any other entity engaged in agricultural research. The NARS Act provides the legal framework specifically for a pluralistic system of agricultural research and development, the separation of funding from agricultural research services implementation, provision of CGs to all eligible participants in the NARS to enhance focused research and innovation, and semi-autonomy of the public agricultural research institutes (comprising NARIs and ZARDIs). 27. The NARS is governed by the NARO Council, with NARO Secretariat providing management support to the council and performing day-to-day business. NARO is designated as the oversight and coordination body for the NARS and will be the implementing agency for ATAAS-financed research. The NARIs and ZARDIs are governed by their respective Management Committees. They are allocated budgets to undertake research. The NARIs are responsible for strategic and long-term research, whereas ZARDIs concentrate on but are not limited to research on zonal priorities. They carry out adaptive research and outreach activities and are a focal point for research-extension linkages. 28. The NAADS program is governed by the NAADS Act (2001) and is directly accountable to Parliament on matters related to the NAADS program. The NAADS Secretariat forms the NAADS executive, undertaking program implementation and management. The Secretariat is responsible for NAADS management and closely coordinates the program with the ministries responsibly for finance and local government. The Secretariat has responsibility for planning, directing, guiding, supporting, and managing the program. The NAADS Board is designated by the Act to facilitate, supervise, and support the NAADS Executive in implementing the program.

9 29. The District and Subcounty Local Governments play a major role in managing the implementation of the NAADS program. The NAADS Coordinators at the district and subcounty levels are local government employees but will be recruited and remunerated under NAADS performance-based contracts. Their activities will be fully integrated and mainstreamed within the District Production Departments and embedded in their management processes. The specific roles that local governments play include oversight, coordination, technical backstopping, financial and procurement management, and monitoring the NAADS program within their respective jurisdictions. Local governments also facilitate planning, budgeting, and integration of NAADS in annual work plans. They will be responsible for preparing statutory accounts and financial reports and submitting them to the authorities described in the NAADS participation Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The Chief Administrative Officer is the Accounting Officer for the district. The Coordinator will be answerable to Chief Administrative Officer for administrative purposes but will be directly accountable to the District Production Officer/Coordinator for technical operations. The district structure will extend to the subcounties, where farmers will be in charge of implementation. The Subcounty Chief will be the Accounting Officer at this level on a delegated basis. The Subcounty NAADS Coordinator will be responsible for coordinating the work of the farmer who will plan and implement program activities. 30. In line with the NAADS program s central principle of empowering farmers, the implementation of ATAAS will enhance the capacities of subcounty farmers (in farmer fora) and the roles that they play. The specific roles of farmer fora in managing and implementing NAADS are spelled out in the descriptions of the project components. This role is central to NAADS program management. Resources have been allocated to redesign and improve governance and management systems to ensure that farmers are in control of program resources. Services supported by NAADS shall be directed at farmer groups, implying that individual farmers will access services and benefit from them by belonging to groups. The famer groups, through the farmer fora, are responsible for planning, tendering, and contracting as well as for supervising, monitoring, and evaluating activities. The farmer groups are at the front line of NAADS management, and their effectiveness has the most influence on the effectiveness of NAADS primary outputs and impact. Substantial resources will be provided for building their management and governance capacities. 7. Sustainability and Replicability 31. The sustainability of Project activities will depend to a large extent on how benefits accrue to farming communities and other stakeholders, so as to give them an incentive to maintain and further develop the investments made under the Project. It will also depend on effective governance structures to ensure that farmers play the critical role in all aspects of the program. Sustainability will also be influenced by the effectiveness and efficiency of the interface between agricultural research and advisory services, in particular at the zonal level. The design of ATAAS is predicated on the maintenance of demand-driven and market-oriented advisory services, the empowerment of farmer organizations, the integration of farmers in value chains, and strengthened links between NARO and NAADS at various levels. Enhanced safeguards have been put in place to ensure that these conditions are maintained.

10 32. The sustainability of the Project is also ensured by the close collaboration of IDA with the other development partners involved. In the past, donors supported Uganda s agricultural sector through multiple projects and programs, with generally unsustainable results. (An exception is the NAADS project, which the EU, IFAD, DANIDA, and others operated under basket funding.) Through the DSIP, ATAAS will support the government s efforts to further harmonize and align donor support in close collaboration with development partners. Furthermore, the Project s implementation follows the subsidiarity principle, under which most activities are implemented at the district and subcounty levels. Institutional sustainability is likely to be achieved because the Project will be mainstreamed into government structures. 33. There is ample scope to increase agricultural productivity, the profitability of small-scale farmers enterprises, and thus pro-poor economic growth in Uganda. ATAAS will support sustainable and profitable productivity growth in small-scale farming systems by providing farmers with environmentally sustainable alternative technologies that help them respond to market demands. The FID process will ensure that supply chains for technology, knowledge, and support services respond to farmers choices and preferences. Market and agribusiness services and support will stimulate agricultural growth and stakeholders revenues by adding value and enhancing producers links with input and output markets. 34. The MAAIF-led SLM platform is a key ingredient for sustaining the Project s impact on SLM and climate risk mitigation. MAAIF is the key to linking NARO and NAADS with other implementing agencies in the sector and thus coordinating on knowledge, policy alignment, and investment in agriculture and across sectors. This platform is an important ingredient for a future SWAp, as a programmatic approach is already being developed for SLM, and it provides a channel for coordinating climate change interventions in Uganda. Efforts in this direction improve the long-term sustainability of Project efforts. 8. Lessons Learned from Past Operations in the Country/Sector 35. Various assessments, studies, and implementation reports provide important lessons that have been incorporated in the proposed project. The most important of these are: Governance failures at local administrative levels resulted in corruption and misuse of NAADS funds. With almost 80 percent of NAADS funds going directly to the local government system, the design of ATAAS places particular emphasis on building in governance and anti-corruption safeguards at all levels to ensure full transparency and accountability for program funds. Lack of ownership and understanding of NAADS principles has eroded governance of the NAADS program at the local government level. NAADS interface with local government will be enhanced to ensure better ownership of the program and enforcement of NAADS guidelines. In addition, local government capacity-building frameworks under the Local Government Development Program (LGDP) will be integrated into the NAADS risk management framework. The quality of NAADS service delivery was often affected by the inadequate capacity and insufficient numbers of service providers to respond to famer needs. Under ATAAS, NAADS will develop and implement a robust strategy and plan for capacity

11 development of service providers, including quality assurance, in close collaboration with NARO. Weak NARO NAADS linkages limit the extension of research outputs to farmers fields. Poor feedback about farmers demands and problems limits the development or refinement of technologies, such as technologies that help farmers cope with challenges including droughts, floods, pests, diseases, soil degradation, soil nutrient depletion, and postharvest losses. Under ATAAS, high priority is given to strengthening the linkages between the NARS and other stakeholders in agricultural R&D, especially with NAADS but also with other providers of research and advisory services. NARO and NAADS will be made responsible for identifying impact pathways and the institutional framework for generating and managing information flows from technology users to research managers and policy institutions. NARO s priority setting sometimes neglected crucial short-term priorities for enterprise development and marketing. NARO and NAADS will therefore merge priority setting and annual review processes at the zonal and national levels. This action will improve the inclusion of NAADS (zonal/district) goals for agricultural commercialization and of MAAIF s (national) development objectives in the NARO agenda. NAADS Phase I advisory services focused more on the production side and did not sufficiently link the selection of enterprises to market conditions or prospects. Although an agribusiness and market linkages component was explicitly included in the design at MTR, there is clearly a need to significantly scale up the support for commercialization and agribusiness development. The ATAAS design addresses this issue directly. Challenges arising from climate change and variability call for increased investments in NRM research programs. Under ATAAS, GEF funding will further strengthen and integrate NRM into commodity value chains and provide technologies to mitigate the effects of climate change. Fluctuation in funding from different sources has significant impacts on the implementation of research activities. Deepening of NARS also requires additional resources to promote pluralism. NARO will develop alternative resource mobilization strategies to ensure sustainable funding for R&D. The lack of effective M&E systems has been a serious weakness. Under ATAAS, the M&E/MIS process across institutes and integration between NARO, NAADS, and MAAIF systems will be institutionalized, and the participation of other stakeholders will be enhanced. Incentive systems will be provided for quality reporting with adequate resources allocated for stakeholders to participate in M&E. 9. Safeguard Policies (including public consultation) 36. Based on the potential for limited adverse environmental impacts, ATAAS is rated as EA Category B. It triggers two safeguard policies: (i) Environmental Assessment (OP/BP 4.01) and (ii) Pest Management (OP 4.09). To ensure compliance with the Bank s and GoU s environmental and social safeguards, an Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) has been prepared. The ESMF includes an Integrated Pest Management Framework (IPMF). The ESMF and IPMF provide a step-by-step description of how to identify potential adverse impacts of specific ATAAS activities, plan mitigation measures, implement and monitor

12 them. An ESMF was cleared by the NEMA and the Bank and disclosed in Uganda and the World Bank s Infoshop in January It was updated and the final version was disclosed in April The proposed prevention and mitigation measures, together with their monitoring plans, form an integral part of the project design and costs. The ESMF preparation was informed by consultation with key stakeholders, and the record of consultations is included in the ESMF. 37. To ensure that the capacity to implement the ESMF is fully adequate, training to the ATAAS implementers on the use of the ESMF early in the project effectiveness period will be provided. Additional technical assistance will be provided as necessary during the project implementation period for screening of ATAAS activities or monitoring of mitigation measures implementation to ensure close adherence to the ESMF Safeguard policies. Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project Yes No Environmental Assessment (OP/BP 4.01) [x] [ ] Natural Habitats (OP/BP 4.04) [ ] [x] Pest Management (OP 4.09) [x] [ ] Indigenous Peoples (OP/BP 4.10) [ ] [x] Physical Cultural Resources (OP/BP 4.11) [ ] [x] Involuntary Resettlement (OP/BP 4.12) [ ] [x] Forests (OP/BP 4.36) [ ] [x] Safety of Dams (OP/BP 4.37) [ ] [x] Projects on International Waterways (OP/BP 7.50) [ ] [x] Projects in Disputed Areas (OP/BP 7.60) * [ ] [x] 10. List of Factual Technical Documents 1. Project Concept Note 2. Project Information Data Sheet (concept stage) 3. Integrated Safeguard Data Sheet (concept stage) 4. Minutes of the PCN review meeting 5. Project Information Data Sheet (appraisal stage) 6. Integrated Safeguard Data Sheet (appraisal stage) 7. Project Preparation Facility package 8. Minutes of the QER 9. Minutes of the Decision Meeting 10. Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF), including the Integrated Pest Management Framework (IPMF) 11. Detailed Economic and Financial analysis 12. Working Document on Key Findings from NAADS Impact Evaluation Studies 13. Working Document on Promoting Agribusiness in Uganda * By supporting the proposed project, the Bank does not intend to prejudice the final determination of the parties claims on the disputed areas

13 14. Working Document on International Experiences with Matching Grants 15. Working Document on Threats and Opportunities of Climate Change, Land Degradation and Livelihoods 16. Working Document on Sustainable Land Management Practices: Technical Description 17. Working Document on Information and Communication Technologies for the Project 18. Financial Management Capacity Assessment Report - NARO 19. Financial Management Capacity Assessment Report NAADS 20. Procurement Capacity Assessment Report NARO 21. Procurement Capacity Assessment Report NAADS 22. Project Implementation Plan NARO 23. Project Implementation Plan NAADS 24. Project Procurement Plan NARO 25. Project Procurement Plan NAAD 11. Contact point Contact: Madhur Gautam Title: Lead Economist Tel: / Mgautam@worldbank.org Location: Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (IBRD) 12. For more information contact: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C Telephone: (202) Fax: (202) pic@worldbank.org Web: