Evaluation of DFID (Department for International Development, UK) support for sustainable agriculture)

Following the Rio Summit of 1992, DFID devised a Sustainable Agriculture Strategy (SAS) to inform its Development Policy. Between 1994/95 and 2000, DFID spent £260 million on sustainable agriculture projects. This project was to assess the extent to which commissioned sustainable agriculture projects complied with SAS, and also to evaluate the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of those projects in contributing to sustainable agriculture. To achieve this, the basis and criteria for sustainable agriculture, in its widest sense, were reviewed and how these were developed into the SAS and its implementation was reviewed. To further the evaluation, a selection of SAS projects were evaluated in Bangladesh using criteria centred around impact efficiency and sustainability and related to processes, institutions and markets (PIMS). The project ranged from rice agriculture to environmental regeneration, rice/fish culture and marine fisheries. The extent to which the projects were sustainable and how the strategy had achieved its objectives in reducing poverty, improving food
security as well as sustainably increasing productivity of land and aquatic resources, were assessed. In addition, aspects of the best practice of design and implementation of sustainable development projects were identified, particularly to help support the emerging sustainable livelihoods (SL) approach.