PRONATTA is a project which is national in scope and which is implemented in a decentralized manner in five regions of Colombia-Amazonia, Centro Oriente, Costa Caribe, Occidente, and Orinoquia.

PRONATTA is managed by a Coordination Unit in the Ministry of Agriculture that reports to a Steering Committee representing various stakeholders from the public and private sectors. Project funds are provided in part from a World Bank loan.

The overall goal of the project is to create institutions and mechanisms, which would bring about change in Colombia’s agricultural research culture, and thereby address more effectively the sustainability of smallholder agriculture. Traditionally, the research system has been public sector dominated and driven by supply rather than demand, where the needs of small farmers were not being dealt with.

The Government of Colombia launched PRONATTA with the following specific objectives: i) to build institutional participatory mechanisms which would promote the development and testing of technical packages appropriate to the needs of small farmers; ii) to promote private sector participation in agricultural research; iii) to improve the quality of agricultural research by implementing a demand-driven competitive selection system; iv) and to revitalize underused assets, physical and human and financial, that presently exist in the Colombian agricultural research system.

There are two strategic components to PRONATTA which are complementary to one another and are strongly linked:

• A Competitive Fund in which resources are assigned to projects that respond to the technological needs of small rural producers. The fund co-finances with the implementing agencies i.e. research institutions, NGOs, universities etc., applied research and technological training projects which are identified through a local consultative process in which these implementing agencies consult with farmers as to their needs. Once prepared and submitted, these projects are approved by regional panels (corresponding to the regions above) and then by a national panel. These projects cover a range of issues in the production and post-harvest technology of crops, forestry, livestock production, and fishing, as well as the management of natural resources.

• An Institutional Development Component to reinforce the management capacity of regional and local institutions in which implementing agencies and farmers participate. At the local level the participants are organized into "working groups" or "nodos", which are linked to a network at each of the regional levels. Such mechanisms ensure that smallholders are empowered and that all regions have access to the resources of the project. Regional and national panels have also been instituted to adjudicate proposals and thereby assure transparency and quality.

The project started in August 1995 and will be completed in December 2002.

Funding was provided by: World Bank US$36m, Government of Colombia with co financing from institutions and beneficiaries US$38m, for a total of US$74m.

Agriculture and institutional capacity building.

• PRONATTA has a strong reputation of transparency and efficiency among the beneficiaries and implementing agencies. As a result, in 1999 it won a national award, sponsored by the Fundacion Corona, for being one of the ten most important strategic alliances for alleviation of poverty. It has also received favourable ratings in an independent review by the Overseas Development Institute in which it was commended for improving the quality of research, leveraging idle resources, institutional strengthening and effective participation.

• Co financed 346 projects, out of which 228 were completed. External panels have evaluated 127, and 94 percent was judged satisfactory as per the established evaluation criteria of sustainability, equity, and competitiveness.

• Executed a total of US$ 32 million in research and training projects, out of which US$ 5,3 million provided by the Government of Colombia, and a further US$ 8,5 million loan from the World Bank, while US$ 18,2 million financed by implementing agencies. This is a measure of the project’s ability to leverage resources.

• Organized participatory regional panels in all 5 regions of the country as well as 22 working groups (nodos) to channel demand. This is reflected in the following regional distribution of the projects approved; Amazonia 8.3 percent, Centro Oriente 29.1 percent, Costa Caribe, 13.7 percent, Occidente 31 percent and Orinoquia, 17.1 percent.

• A wide range of institutions participate in the project, and the following is the percentage distribution of projects approved across institutions, CORPOICA (government research institution) 44 percent, Universities 10 percent, private sector institutions 18 percent, other public sector institutions 6 percent, alliances (multi-institutional) 18 percent.

• Increased productivity, and adoption of sustainable management practices among small producers. A further evaluation process is now under way to measure the extent of these impacts.

1. A competitive system for the allocation of research resources is feasible within the Colombian system;

2. A participatory approach is essential to the identification of the research needs of small farmers and enhances the quality of technological solutions for sustainable smallholder agriculture;

3. It is important to start with, and maintain well defined procedures to ensure transparency and credibility in the allocation of resources;

4. A competitive and participatory system is very effective in mobilizing idle resources, physical, human and financial, to address the problems of sustainable smallholder agriculture.

Luis Ernesto Villegas, Project Coordinator,
PRONATTA
Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural,
Av. Jimenez 7-65, Santa Fe de Bogota.
Telefax: (+57) 1 284 1815
E-mail: PRONATTA@colomsat.net.co
Webpage: http://www.rimisp.cl/pronatta.html