USAID undertook a five-year crop and livestock development program in Zimbabwe's provinces of Manicaland, Midlands, and Mashonaland West. The primary objective of the crop development program was to reduce rural poverty, improve food security and nutrition of 3,500 households living on irrigation schemes and 25,000 households living on dryland sites. USAID provided training to farmers to increase agricultural productivity, increase the value of the marketed surplus of cash and food crops, and improve nutrition. While the aim of the livestock development program in addition to poverty reduction and increasing income and food security for 1,800 beef and 1,200 smallholder farmers, the programs also aimed to improve their livestock nutrition and hygiene practices.

CRI was contracted under USAID's Learning, Evaluation and Analysis Project (LEAP) to carry out an ex-post evaluation of the crop and livestock development program. CRI conducted a Cost-Benefit Analysis which focused on the maize, groundnuts, green mealies, and tomatoes value chains (VCs). The aim of the CBA was to quantify the financial and economic impacts of the crop and livestock development program on its primary beneficiaries as well as any other relevant stakeholders.

The CBA utilized the Integrated Investment Appraisal (IIA) approach to quantify the benefits and costs of the program accruing to the benefiting farm households as well as the Government of Zimbabwe and USAID. The benefits and costs of the project were measured both in financial and economic terms to adequately assess, quantify and allocate the financial and economic impacts of the interventions amongst the project stakeholders. 

The results of the analysis as well as conclusions and recommendations were shared with USAID and will inform how future projects are designed and implemented taking into consideration the lessons learnt from the evaluation of the Zimbabwe Crop and Livestock Development Program.