The primary purpose of this assignment in Panama was to assist USAID and the Ministerio de Salud in improving the irrigation of community gardens. In an effort to improve the nutrition of the people living in small communities throughout the country, there are plans to organize more than 200 small community gardens to produce fresh vegetables for local consumption. The climate of Panama is such that in most places there is a dry period of about four months when irrigation of the vegetables would be beneficial. The plan was to have the writer visit a number of areas throughout the country to see first hand the problems involved in the irrigation of these gardens and to make recommendations and prepare plans for the irrigation systems. He has attempted to obtain information with respect to the climate and other factors that have a bearing on the problems of irrigation such as topography, soils and availability and cost of irrigation equipment.