Are Development Projects Pursuing Short-Term Benefits at the Expense of Sustainability?

Yigezu Yigezu, Tamer El-Shater and Aden Aw-Hassan
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Yigezu Yigezu: International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Amman, Jordan
Tamer El-Shater: International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Amman, Jordan
Aden Aw-Hassan: International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Amman, Jordan

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 10, 1-12

Abstract: When evaluated purely on financial grounds, most developmental interventions targeting the livestock sector exhibit a positive impact. This study also provides empirical evidence that a project which provided loans to livestock producers in Syria succeeded in increasing the annual farm income and reducing the income risk. However, these annual benefits were accompanied by a reduction in technical efficiency which, unabated, may compound over the years and compromise the livestock enterprise’s sustainability. The development lesson from these findings is that misguided interventions with well-known short-term livelihoods benefits could, in the long run, hurt the very sector which they aim to support.

Keywords: small ruminants; loans; sustainability; income; risk; technical efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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