A national socioeconomic methodology to evaluate rural roads was developed. This methodology presents the relationship among road accessibility, rainfall, drainage conditions, engineering properties of the subgrade and pavement materials, cost analysis, and agricultural benefits. A production-loss function was developed to determine the relationship between road surface conditions and losses in quality and value to agricultural products. Approximately 6000 km of rural roads along the Pacific Coast of Ecuador, 70 percent of which are dirt roads that are not usable during the wet season, were evaluated by using this methodology. A road inventory was conducted to evaluate surface conditions, soils and materials properties, drainage and structural facilities, geometric properties, and accessibility. The percentage of the cultivated area was determined together with the type of crop and the influence area of each road. Population density and the illiteracy rate within the area of influence were also determined. It was concluded that the socioeconomic evaluation of road improvement is best executed in two stages; the first, as a threshold analysis, is to determine the most economical alternative for each given traffic volume. The second stage is a complete socioeconomic analysis with determination of the internal rate of return, first-year benefit ratio, net present value, population density, and illiteracy rate. Under a total budget of US $34 million, 1300 km were upgraded as a result of this study.(Author)