The project could have been designed to better serve farmers with small plots of land. The interim evaluation shows that farmers with medium or large areas of land are benefiting the most from the project at this time. Land consolidation has been slow and has been a barrier to increased irrigation because it limits efficiencies in irrigation and the ability to use the large-capacity pumps. Instead of rebuilding old Soviet irrigation systems designed to irrigate large areas of land, MCC could have designed the irrigation systems to better serve the existing situation in Moldova, where many farmers have small plots of land and are hesitant to cooperate. MCC could have focused some project resources on facilitating small farm cooperation or land consolidation to increase the use of the rehabilitated irrigation systems.
Lesson Learned