Summary of publication
This evaluation seeks to assist in developing strategies to assist communities involved in marginal or rainfed farming systems by assessing the impact and effectiveness of three AusAID projects in the Philippines.
AusAID's initial assessment of the problems facing rainfed agriculture identified a complex range of issues to be addressed to increase and sustain agricultural productivity and household incomes. The evaluation focuses on examining the impact and effectiveness of different approaches and on developing guidelines and design strategies for the future.
The three projects evaluated are:
- Philippines–Australia Agricultural Technology Education Project (AGRITECH)
- Pilot Provincial Agricultural Extension Project (PPAEP)
- the Philippines Component of the Forage for Smallholders Project (FSP).
These three projects embrace a range of approaches and stages of implementation. AGRITECH is a very large long-term project which is in the final stages of implementation. PPAEP is a medium-sized project which was completed four years ago. FSP is a very small project which was completed a year ago but has been extended on an even smaller scale under an alternative funding source. Only FSP was exclusively concerned with marginal and rainfed areas. The other two were oriented towards rainfed areas but not to the exclusion of irrigated agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture etc.