Impact Assessment of Irrigated Rice Production Enhancement Project (IRPEP)

FUNDER: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

PROJECT DURATION: 10 January 2017 to 10 October 2017

BACKGROUND:

The Irrigated Rice Production Enhancement Project (IRPEP) is one of the two sub-programmes of Rapid Food Production Enhancement Programme (RaFPEP). The other sub-progam was the Rapid Seed Supply Financing Project (RaSSFiP) which ended in 2011. The goal of RaFPEP is to increase food production by farmers in clustered irrigated rice production systems on a sustainable basis. The Programme completion date is 31 December 2016 and the loan closing date is 30 June 2017.

IRPEP focused on rehabilitating communal irrigation systems (CISs), strengthening of irrigators' associations (IAs) and provision of related support facilities and services in Regions VI, VIII, and X. IRPEP effectively started in 2010 in Regions VIII and X, and in 2012 in Antique of Region VI.

As of the Supervision Report dated 21 September 2015 , the project accomplishment was described as, "The Project has completed most of its target outputs. It has organized and trained 112 irrigators' associations (IA), 100% accomplishment for component 1; maintained annually almost 72% of required buffer stocks of certified seeds and trained 4,299 farmers on palay check for component 2; rehabilitated and restored 9,347 has of irrigated rice lands, a 109% accomplishment for component 3; and almost completed the repair and retrofitting of post-harvest facilities and trained 2,091 famers for collective marketing for component 4. Overall, RaFPEP has utilized 91% of the IFAD loan of USD 15.90 million (IRPEP only 71% of the allocated USD 1.354 IFAD loan) and the Government of the Philippines (GPH) 81.0% of its committed counter funds of USD 14.01 million (IRPEP only 80.7% of the USD 13.78 million GPH counterpart). Total RaFPEP expenditures as of mission time amounted to USD 39.978 million3 (IFAD-36%, EU-27%, GPH-28%, LGU-6%, IA-2%)"

SEARCA understands that Project Completion Report has been completed and the IRPEP status above may have updated information.

As part of its impact assessment initiative, IFAD is conducting an impact assessment of IRPEP. The purpose of this impact assessment is to identify robust estimates of IRPEP's impact on key impact indicators as well as answer key questions on the programme's success.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF SEARCA:

The Terms of Reference (TOR) specified the duties and responsibilities of the service provider and reiterated herein, as follows:

1. Assist with the preparation of the survey strategy including with acquisition of secondary data and any information needed for sampling as well as for tailoring context specific questions that must reflect the impact assessment plan;
2. Organize quantitative data collection, including provide input in finalizing sample, questionnaire and any tools used for data collection;
3. Pilot the quantitative survey questionnaire in the field with at least 12 households (both in the treatment and control areas) before the data collection begins to fine-tune the survey tools, including organize the logistic and provide support for managing and conducting enumerator training and the pre-testing of the survey;
4. Administer quantitative household and Irrigators' Association level surveys covering a total of 2,000 households, in 120 Community Irrigation Systems across eight provinces and approximately 90 municipalities in Regions VI, VIII and X, and submit processed data files in Stata and Excel format, complete with any do files or other relevant material and of a clear and complete codebook and guidelines for data interpretation and understanding.
5. Arrangement of tablets, mobile phones, tape recorders (for the qualitative study) or other electronic devices, without any additional cost to IFAD. The questionnaires should be converted into electronic format. Data upload and temporary storage arrangements and transfer to IFAD are the responsibility of the Contractor.
6. Conduct qualitative data collection consisting of 12 focus group discussions (FGDs) with Irrigation Association Officers and 12 FGDs with programme staff and 48 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) – four in each of the 12 selected provinces with Department staff and Local Government Units, across the three focal regions.
7. Provide a report on field activities completion and on preliminary descriptive statistics from data analysis.

METHODOLOGY:

The TOR laid down the methodologies to be employed for data collection, which include the following:

1. Quantitative Household and Irrigators' Association level surveys. This will cover a total of 2,000 households, in 120 Community Irrigation Systems across eight provinces and approximately 90 municipalities in Regions VI, VIII, and X. It is understood that IFAD Research and Impact Assessment (RIA) Division will provide the draft questionnaire and will be subjected for pilot testing to 12 households. The pilot will cover both the treatment and control areas. The Consultants are expected to help the finalization of the questionnaire after the pilot testing. The selection of 2,000 households shall be further discussed during project inception.
2. Qualitative Data Collection. This will consist of 12 focus group discussions (FGDs) with Irrigation Association Officers and 12 FGDs with programme staff, and 48 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) – four in each of the 12 selected provinces with Department staff and Local Government Units, across the three focal regions. Draft questions for FGDs and KIIs will be provided by IFAD. The Consultants are expected to assist in the finalization of the questions. Likewise, the selection of participants to FGDs as well as Key Informants will also be discussed during project inception.

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¹ Supervision Report, RaFPEP, 21 September 2015
(https://operations.ifad.org/.../866d9d9c-655a-42b6-af02-e2ded227ceb8)