College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Project Name:           Assistance to the USAID Mission in Colombia – LAMP Follow-Up *
Donor:                        Agency for International Development
Contract No:               AID/514-129-T 
Account No:               71-2030
Location:                    Bogota, Colombia
Duration:                    September 1970-December 1972
Budget:                      

Key MSU Faculty:       Harold Riley (Dept. Agricultural Economics, MSU)

Documents:                (Click here to view)

Project Goals:           To work out of the AID Mission in Bogota in assisting the Government of Colombia to conduct studies and analyses of the inter-relationships between the urban and rural sectors with particular emphasis on the role of agriculture within regional economic systems in Colombia and to advise and assist Colombian Government officials and AID staff in the formulation of agricultural policies and programs to encourage agricultural and urban development along regional lines.

Project Plans/Objectives:

• To assist the Ministry of Agriculture in the planning and presentation of a national food marketing seminar.
• To provide counsel to the Corporacion de Abastos de Bogota and the Central de Abastecimientos del Valle del Cauca and to other regional agencies that may be organized.
• To carry out analyses to develop better estimates of the effects of larger-scale and better coordinated systems of urban food distribution on employment, food prices, and the secondary effects on demand for food and non-food consumer goods.
• To conduct studies to support the development of coordinated production-marketing programs for selected rural areas where major public efforts are being made to increase employment and incomes.
• To assist Mission staff in studies on migration patterns, estimation of average and marginal costs of urban infrastructure by size of city, identification of "bottlenecks" impeding the development of intermediate cities, and industrial development in intermediate cities.
• To provide assistance to local contractors with the National Department of Planning for the evaluation and monitoring activities to be a part of the Urban-Regional program.
• To explore the potential interest of Colombian entities in simulation model studies and to assist in making arrangements for this activity.

Cooperating Institutions: CORABASTOS, AID/Bogota, CAVASA (Cali),  Empresos Varios of Medellen, Planning Section-Ministry of Agriculture.

Documents From/About This Project:

•  A Proposal for Discussion of a National Program for Improving Food Marketing in Colombia. 1970. Harold M.Riley. A proposal presented to the Colombian National Planning Department.  Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University.
• Pablo  Improving the Organization of Fruit and Vegetable Production-Assembly Systems in the Coffee Zone of Colombia: A Case Study in the La Mesa Region. 1972. By J. Pablo Torrelba.  Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University
• Evaluation of Food Market Reform: Corabastos, Bogota.  I976. By Alvario Silva.  Ph.D. Dissertation.  (Full text version )

*This description is adapted from work by Nancy E. Horn, an MSU alumnus from the Anthropology Department, published in 1985 “A Project History of Michigan State University’s Participation in International Development for the period 1951 – 1985”.  See AFRE Emeritus Faculty - Acknowledgements