ardi

Press release today from the USAID announces the initial funding for the “Agriculture Reconstruction and Development Program for Iraq” (ARDI)

In support of the Coalition Provisional Authority’s (CPA) reconstruction efforts in Iraq, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) today announced an initial award of $5 million to Bethesda, Maryland-based Development Alternatives, Inc (DAI) for agricultural reconstruction and development in Iraq. This one-year program, known as the “Agriculture Reconstruction and Development Program for Iraq” (ARDI), is designed to support Iraqi initiatives to revitalize agricultural production, stimulate income and employment generation through agro-enterprise and market development, nurture rural financial services, and rehabilitate the natural resource base.

The initial RFP was issued on June 4, 2003.

In the meantime, news from Texas A&M via Agriculture News says the contract is for a wee bit more than $5 million:

Texas A&M University will lead a US-funded effort to help rebuild Iraq's agricultural economy over the next three years. The university's International Agriculture Office will lead a consortium of universities and government agencies in a $107 million project awarded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The goal for the first year is to double agricultural production on 30,000 Iraqi farms.

Other members of the consortium include USDA's Agriculture Research Service, and Cooperative State, Research, Education and Extension Service, Cornell University, Washington State University, Virginia Tech, Purdue, and the University of California at Davis.

[...]

The consortium will serve as a subcontractor to Development Alternatives Inc., an international consulting firm based in Maryland that will oversee the entire project. The arrangement is designed to pull in experts rapidly from the public sector using the Texas A&M umbrella.

Development Alternatives Inc. has also been awarded a previous contract for the Iraq Marshlands.

Iraq Strategies for Assisting the Marsh Dwellers and Restoring the Marshes in Southern Iraq (2003-2004). Since 1992, 90 percent of the marshes of southern Iraq have disappeared and, with them, the marsh dwellers' way of life. DAI will help develop the design for an initial marshlands restoration program, which will include implementing pilot restoration projects, providing social and economic assistance, collecting and monitoring data, developing a hydrologic model of the entire basin and a corresponding hydrodynamic or hydroperiod model of al-Hammar and al-Hawizeh marshes, and capacity building in marshlands management.