NORMATIVE FRAMEWORK

TELEFOOD SPECIAL FUND PROJECT FORMAT

"Year-round Vegetable Production in the Humid Tropics"

Target group
Primary beneficiaries will be the poor smallholder farm families involved with crop diversification away from volatile commodity production, by encouraging the increased efficiency of utilization of their limited plots of land through extension of the production season.

Background and justification
In the humid tropics, farmers may be intensively involved in the production of such crops as coffee, green pepper, sugarcane and rice. However, due to the uncertainty of returns generated from these traditional cash crops caused by fluctuation in commodity prices, many of them have initiated small-scale vegetable growing. This initiative has rapidly proven to be rewarding because the vegetables fetch high prices, not only for consumption locally, but also for export elsewhere in the country. Unfortunately, production is generally limited to the dry season. Production in the rainy season is hampered by flooding leading to waterlogged soil conditions, rapid weed growth leading to high weed populations and resulting competitive losses to the crop plants, physical damage to plants and high pest and disease incidence.

Pre-requisites
A number of pre-requisites need to be satisfied before project assistance should be considered, specifically:

• a local willingness to participate in and contribute to the programme both at governmental ad community level;
• an institution (government or NGO) capable of initiating and supervising the programme in the project area, as well as providing other essential inputs not covered by TeleFood;
• Advisors/extension staff trained in horticulture, preferably with experience in vegetable production and marketing, and with a good understanding of the local cultural environment and farming system practices.

Objectives
The primary aim of the project is to expand production of vegetables throughout the entire calendar by introduction of low cost, simple and adapted protective structures, appropriate crops and cultivars adapted to the hot and humid wet season conditions, and use of cultural practices for water management. The project will concentrate on assisting small farmers to acquire the related technology to enable them to produce vegetables all year round, and provide a sustainable income generation security for twelve months of the year.

Duration of the project: Typically one year.

Outputs
The principle benefit will be the increased production of vegetables by the extension of the growing and production season. This will be multiplied by the use of improved production practices and the yield increase that can be expected from use of specifically adapted crops and cultivars for the differing production seasons. The availability of irrigation supplies for continuous irrigation, even during specific periods of the wet season, will reduce crop losses, and, depending on an irrigation source being available, will increase the range and amount of vegetable production during the dry season.

The technology involved in this programme is simple and easily replicated and can be expected to be readily adopted once the initial pilot programme has successfully demonstrated the benefits accruing to the participants for off season vegetable production.

Activities
The basis for interventions will be improved crop husbandry, through provision of shelter from the rainy season excessive rainfall for especially sensitive crops; use of appropriate crops and cultivars to extend the current season of production in the open; water management through removal of excess during the rainy season, and provision of simple water storage and delivery systems for the dry season. The main areas of activity that the project should undertake are:

• Design and construction from locally available material of simple shelter structures on a pilot basis (10% of the participating families). The major problem with culture of sensitive crops during the rainy season is the physical damage done to sensitive vegetable crops from incessant rain, the presence of excessive free water on the surfaces of the plant also predisposes the plant to disease infection. The elimination of this direct contact of the rainfall onto the plant surface is a major factor in allowing sustained vegetable production of these crops throughout the year. These structures, which will each cover approx. 72m2 in area, consist of a simple aluminum frame which has a long life, covered with varying cladding materials depending on the requirement of the particular agro-climatic zone, from fully impervious polyethylene sheeting, through micropore cladding which allows air movement but will divert over 90% of the rainfall from the enclosed plants, to open weave shade materials which allow penetration of some of the rainfall. These cladding materials have varying life spans from two to ten years, the choice of which cladding to use will depend on local experience.
• Initiation of vegetable production on raised beds to provide improved drainage characteristics. Raised bed technology, whereby soil from pathways (at approximately 1.5m spacing) is excavated and used to build up the depth of soil on the intervening spaces has three major advantages, the pathway network acts as a drainage system to rapidly remove excess water and reduces soil waterlogging, the added depth of soil increases the available root zone of fertile top soil and hence encourages plant growth, and the use of permanent beds that can be reached from pathways reduces or eliminates soil compaction problems. The use of permanent beds allows excellent weed management either through soil sterilization or gradual elimination of the weed seed population by intensive weeding through the entire year.
• Provision of a starter seed supply of adapted species and improved vegetable cultivars adapted to the hot and humid conditions and meeting the requirements of the local market, to each participating farm family. The choice of the correct crop, and cultivar within crops, is essential to the success of wet season vegetable production (as it is for any season of production). Provision of small starter packs of specifically adapted crops and cultivars to participating farm families will ensure their successful exploitation of the improved protective structures and soil management practices. The choice of crops and cultivars will be based on locally available recommendations for tried and tested combinations.
• Construction of simple water reservoirs and supply of pipes and hoses for water conveyance and better irrigation management. Crops adapted to the wet season cultivation, by their nature tend to be drought susceptible, provision therefore for sustained cropping needs to be made to supplement periods of low rainfall with irrigation. Simple irrigation structures can be constructed to tap the run off from the protected structure (family residence), and store it for future use, or pump from a local irrigation supply (river, water table, lake, etc.). Tapping of protective structure run off, has an additional benefit in that it reduces the degree of waterlogging of the surrounding area, which would be exacerbated by the structure run off if left to percolate directly into the surrounding soil. With a permanent raised bed system, a simple PVC pipe system can be installed and buried (to protect from UV breakdown), with UV resistant raisers at suitable intervals fed by gravity from the storage tank, through a manually operated hose pipe for field delivery. This same system can also be used to intensify production of higher water demanding crops during the dry season, should a suitable water source be readily available.

Linkages with other (FAO) projects
To be defined in each country.

Inputs/Budget
Assuming an initial target population for 50 farm families for participation in the TeleFood project, of whom five will install the protected structure:

Monitoring and Reporting
The national implementing agency will be responsible for providing FAO with quarterly and final reports in an agreed format. The FAO Representation will be responsible for monitoring the progress of the project and ensuring, through independent audit, that the funds are used correctly.