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Abstract
Rural development projects are aimed at reducing: (1) the large differences in
income between urban and rural areas; and (2) the income inequality that
persists within rural areas because of the large differences in access to
agricultural assets (particularly land), to social services (such as health,
education, and housing), and to productive services (such as credit, marketing,
and processing facilities). The lack of these facilities and services and the
disparities in income and wealth have led some Latin American governments to
promote projects which supply the deficient facilities and services to poor rural
areas. This emphasis on integrated rural development has also been promoted
by the international lending agencies--the World Bank and the Inter-American
Development Bank in particular. While rural and agricultural development
projects have been initiated in a number of countries, this paper emphasizes
examples in Latin America in which the Inter-American Development Bank has
been involved. Specific references to these projects do not represent an official
viewpoint, however, and opinions expressed herein are exclusively mine.
In executing agricultural and rural development projects in Latin America,
most problems have arisen because of inattention to: (1) beneficiary participation
in designing and implementing the projects; (2) dealing with changes in
the existing institutional structure and public organization; (3) finding criteria
for the selection of beneficiary persons, groups, and regions; and (4) resolving
the debate among those espousing a product oriented development strategy and
those supporting a social development oriented strategy. Two major project
categories may be differentiated--the agricultural development project and the
rural development project. Mosher has suggested a practical classification
scheme for these projects. The former emphasizes supplying missing production
services (marketing, credit, extension, and research) while the latter emphasizes
public social services (education, health, and sanitation).
Rural development projects should increase the participation of the rural poor
in the planning stage of the projects. This is emphasized in the rural
development programmes of Mexico and Colombia, but is absent from many
other agricultural investment programmes in Latin American countries. For
example, it has been common for governments to design and execute agricultural
projects (such as irrigation) without a careful consideration of the receptiveness
and the social characteristics of the beneficiary groups. This has given rise to
serious problems such as frequent dissatisfaction of beneficiaries, underutilized
investment works, high project unit costs, production failures, low rates of
return, and heavy government subsidization of the beneficiaries. See, for
example, the survey of Colombian agrarian reform projects by Howard.
The candidate beneficiaries of rural development projects are the inhabitants
who historically have been excluded-the small subsistence farmer, the landless
worker, and the population in the small urban centre in predominantly rural
regions. To the extent that the rural poor are concentrated in well defined
regions, rural development projects may benefit this group, but if the rural poor
are spread out through all rural and small urban areas, there is a reduced
prospect that specific regional rural development projects will have the desired
effects. It is clear that middle income rural inhabitants may benefit from
traditional public programs because of the access they have to the programs.
For example, school nutrition programs often do not reach the lowest income
groups because the children of the poor attend school with much less frequency
than other income classes (Offedal and Levinson).