National planning for economic development has become an institutionalized process in most lesser developed nations of the world. A national plan is comprised of a set of development projects which individually and collectively are designed to contribute to achieving certain economic and social goals for the nation. Ideally, governments should have .a complementary set of price and trade policies that would enhance the success rate of development projects. It is now common practice to design and appraise development projects through a rigorous process including ·(at a minimum) technical, financial, social, economic, and environmental analyses. Price and trade policies are usually taken as given when appraising development projects. These policies directly affect net financial profitability (NFP) for farmers as development project participants. For example, policies that result in subsidized input prices and/or output prices above import parity enhance private participant net financial profitability, but do not affect the net social profitability (NSP) of the project. Policies relating to exchange rates do affect NSP. Both private and social considerations must be carefully assessed at the project design and appraisal stages since exchange rates, import parity prices, and government-administered prices are subject to change.