Poor
Rural Communities Support Services Project (PRCSSP)
Project
Manager
Den Amstel, West Coast Demerara, Guyana, South America
tel: (592) 268-2393 fax: (592) 268-2393
email: prcssp@sdnp.org.gy |
The Poor Rural Communities Support
Services Project (PRCSSP) is a community initiated agricultural/rural
and community development project, which seeks to alleviate poverty in
two coastal regions of Guyana, namely Regions 2 & 3, by increasing
rural household incomes.
This US$16.4 Mn. Project is jointly
funded by the Government of Guyana (GOG), International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
The funding breakdown is as follows:
| Agency |
Amount |
Percentage
of Total Funds |
| IFAD |
SDR7.3Mn. |
(64%) |
| CDB |
US$5.4Mn. |
(33%) |
| GOG |
US$0.5Mn. |
(3%) |
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The general project objective is to
provide efficient and sustainable support services to rural communities
in Regions 2 and 3 with a particular focus on poor rural households,
Amerindian communities and households headed by women.
The specific objectives of the project
are to:
- foster small farmers' organisations
and production based rural community groups to enhance their self
reliance;
- facilitate the provision of efficient
and sustainable technical support services, including training,
extension and applied research;
- rehabilitate basic drainage and
irrigation in eligible communities;
- provide credit facilities to small
farmers and small rural entrepreneurs;
- provide financial resources, in the
form of grant funds, for the promotion and execution of community
development initiatives; and,
- strengthen both public sector and
private suppliers of rural support services in order to enhance
their capacity for providing such services.
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The beneficiaries of the project are
considered to be all persons operating within Regions 2 & 3, who
satisfy the following criteria:
- do not own or operate more than 10
acres (4 hectares) of land;
- their household income does not exceed
US$2,600 per year.
The target group includes small farmers
engaged in rice production, small farmers engaged in the production of
Non-Traditional Commodities (NTC), that is commodities other than rice
and sugar, and rural micro-entrepreneurs. In addition, 30% of the
beneficiaries should be women.
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Beneficiary participation is the guiding
factor in the preparation and implementation of this project, and
beneficiaries will be involved at all stages of the project cycle. All
project interventions will be beneficiary 'demand-driven'.
Project
Activities
| Technical Support Services
This component includes an
integrated package of technical services to rural communities.
The technical support would include social organisation
training, agricultural extension and specialised technical
services. The package of Technical Services will be delivered
by Technical Service Suppliers (TSS), who may be private
companies or Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), contracted
for this purpose by the project. The role of the TSSs will
specifically be to make initial contact with communities and
provide support to those communities in need identification,
business planning, and provision of other specialised
technical assistance as necessary.
This component will also
upgrade certain basic public support services facilities which
remove crucial production constraints, such as a Veterinary
Laboratory, a Fisheries Station, and plant nurseries.
Community Initiatives
The Project provides
non-reimbursable financial assistance to farmers'
organisations and rural community groups undertaking projects
intended to remove crucial production constraints. Priority is
given to investment projects designed to address the special
production constraints of the disadvantaged and vulnerable
target groups, such as Amerindians, women, the landless, and
youths. A condition of funding sub-projects under this
component is that communities must agree to maintain the
facilities after the sub-project has been completed, as such,
great emphasis in the project's activities is placed upon
building capacity within the communities to facilitate them
assuming this role.
D & I Rehabilitation
The Project will finance works
to rehabilitate drainage, irrigation and related road
infrastructure in selected areas of Regions 2 and 3. Typical
works to be carried out in these sub-projects would be the
realignment and cleaning of irrigation and drainage canals,
repair and access roads and bridges. Works only commence after
farmers have organised themselves into Water Users
Associations (WUAs). The Project provides support for the
development of WUAs through the provision of training and
technical assistance, as well as technical and socio-economic
studies related to each proposed sub-project.
The request for assistance will
flow from the beneficiaries, who are expected to have full
participation in the planning and rehabilitation process. WUAs
assume responsibility for the management and maintenance of
the system after rehabilitation work is completed.
Credit Services
The project has contracted a
Financial Institution specialised in micro-credit delivery in
Guyana, to on-lend credit resources for short and medium-term
credit to small farmers and microentrepreneurs. Priority is
given to the most vulnerable groups within the target
population, that is the landless, women, and the young.
Operationally, credit requests will emerge as part of the work
of the TSSs, who are required to draw up a community profile
as the first part of their involvement with the beneficiaries.
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page was designed and developed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Regent &
Vlissengen Rds, Georgetown, Guyana, South America, P.O. Box: 1001
If
you have any questions or comments, please contact "guyagri@hotmail.com"
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