Programme description

Title: Agricultural development programme (PROAGRO)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA)
Country: Bolivia
Lead executing agency: Ministerio de Planificación del Desarrollo, Viceministro de Inversión Pública y Financiamiento Externo (VIPFE)
Overall term: 2005 to 2017

Context

The areas of Bolivia most affected by poverty are the rural regions where the local economy is insufficiently diversified and potential is limited due to a shortage of water resources. The situation in rural drylands is set to get worse as conditions in these marginal production areas continue to deteriorate as a result of climate change. The negative effects include a reduction in water availability, shorter growing seasons, an increase in extreme weather events and production risks. Agricultural production and the water resources needed for this process are important factors in safeguarding people’s livelihoods and income, particularly in the drylands in southern Bolivia. The area needs a proper irrigation infrastructure, coordination mechanisms for the sustainable management and distribution of scarce water resources and efficient, needs-orientated services for improving agricultural production and marketing.

With its national programmes on irrigation, watershed management, agricultural innovation and marketing, the Bolivian Government has established the cornerstones for promoting agriculture. However, it still requires support with implementing the programmes. The quality, interlinking and effectiveness of measures introduced by the government programmes on agricultural development are insufficient. The impacts of climate change in particular create a need for more radical action to reduce risk in agricultural production, for example by securing water resources, using water more efficiently, and promoting more drought-resistant crops and farming methods.

Objective

The resilience of smallholder producers in rural drylands to the risks posed by climate change is increased. The management of watersheds is more orientated towards ensuring the availability and fair distribution of water resources. The revenue from agricultural production is sustainably increased.

Approach

The PROAGRO programme (Programa de Desarrollo Agropecuario Sustentable) supports the Bolivian government at national, regional and local level in implementing national sector programmes to help reduce poverty in rural areas and support the current national development programme. PROAGRO works closely with the regional and local organisations responsible for implementation. All the support measures are interlinked and can be used flexibly.

As part of joint financing arrangements with the Swedish International Development Cooperation (SIDA), the three components of the project have been run as a German-Swedish cooperation project since 2011. These three components are:

1. Integrated watershed management. The project advises the Bolivian Government on drawing up and implementing the Plan Nacional de Cuencas programme. Experts from the ministries involved are supported in their work. PROAGRO also promotes local measures to manage watersheds in small river valleys in Norte Potosí, Chaco, and Valles Mesotérmico (Tarija, Chuquisaca, Santa Cruz, and Cochabamba). Experience with these measures is continuously fed into national policy-making.
2. Water for agriculture. PROAGRO supports improvement of the institutional, staffing and statutory bases for national sector policy and provides advice to the regional governments and authorities responsible for implementing the National Irrigation Plan. Working with Bolivian universities, PROAGRO is running training programmes for decision-makers and technicians from state institutions and private companies.
3. Agricultural production and marketing. The focus of all the measures is the sustainable management of natural resources in agriculture. This includes, for example, improving the quality and the profitability of smallholder production by providing guidance on marketing agricultural products.

Results achieved so far

Regional measures in Chaco
In 14 of the 16 municipalities, committees have been set up to promote the local economy. These bodies also act on suggestions made by the population. One quarter of local project applications come from women, young people or members of the indigenous population.

With support from PROAGRO, five new production cooperatives have been formed since 2005 (APOMAJI, APROSAM, APACAIGUA, ASOPROMANI, and APIMONT) and have been successful in jointly marketing their produce. In 2009, this secured additional gross income of around 1,200,000 bolivianos (some EUR 120,000) for the 770 agricultural producers involved in the scheme.

Thirty irrigation projects have been put in place under an agreement with the prefecture of Tarija, covering an irrigated area of over 10,000 hectares and benefiting more than 5,500 families.

PROAGRO is advising on the construction and commissioning of the Caigua dam and supporting the irrigation engineers organisationally. It has also provided technical construction advice to the Huacata dam project in Tarija.
In four watersheds, participatory management plans have been drawn up and advice given on their implementation.

With support from PROAGRO, the Organización Económica Rural (OER) associations of farmers in four municipalities – Monteagudo, Yacuiba, Villamontes, and Huacata – succeeded in achieving additional gross income from marketing their produce in 2009; around 630 producers earned extra income totalling 290,000 bolivianos.

Regional measures in Norte de Potosí and Sur de Cochabamba
If food security for poor farming families is to be improved and their resilience to the effects of climate change boosted in a region already marked by extreme climate conditions, projects must

• increase availability of water to farming families, particularly for arable and livestock farming, by means of micro-irrigation systems;
• reduce erosion in micro-watershed areas within these systems;
• optimise irrigated farming and delivery of water to plots of land;
• ensure better marketing of the minimal production surpluses.

By early 2002, over 1,700 families saw their access to water improved by means of 775 micro-irrigation systems, of which more than half were fed from rainwater storage basins. Of this group, around 500 families are currently taking steps to secure the micro-watershed and to improve efficiency of water use in agricultural production.

These measures are being implemented by a joint venture between CES-Consulting Engineers Salzgitter GmbH and GOPA Consultants.

Regional measures in Valles Mesotérmicos
In addition to the management plans already existing by mid-2009 (in Bañados, Huacata, and Comarapa), municipalities, user-groups and grassroots organisations agreed on seven further such plans in Villa Serrano, Kuyoj Qhocha, Tapera, Hío, El Salto, Salinas, and Trancas Tambo.

These plans serve as the basis for further measures to protect the implementation of integrated projects for irrigation, supply of drinking water, and agricultural production. More efficient use of water resources leads to better food security for the smallholders generally living in poverty and reduces their vulnerability to the effects of climate change.