Enhancing Agricultural Productivity in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Nov. 10 (World Bank Press Release) — The Integrated Agricultural Productivity Project supports the Government’s priority to improve agricultural productivity and ensure food security for the people.  The project aims to enhance the productivity of agriculture in the flash-flood and drought-prone northern districts of Rangpur, Kurigram, Nilfamari, and Lalmonirhat;  and salt-affected tidal surge areas in the southern districts of Barisal, Patuakhali, Barguna and Jhalokhati.

The project will directly benefit approximately 300,000 small and marginal farmers in agro-ecologically constrained areas. Among them, about 175,000 would be crop farmers, 60,000 livestock farmers and 60,000 fish farmers.  

Two improved Wheat varieties and one improved Mustard variety from the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute, along with two improved Rice varieties from the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute have already been released for farmers’ use. In addition, eight improved production packages for crops and three for aquaculture have also been released.

The Department of Agriculture Extension formed 1,875 Livelihood Field Schools (LFSs) and conducted 7,245 demonstrations on various crops in last fiscal year. The target for this fiscal year is to form 2,740 LFS groups and conduct 13,000 demos.  So far, more than 56,000 farmers have adopted improved crop varieties and practices. 

The Department of Fisheries has formed 1,185 groups and distributed fingerlings of Tilapia, Koi and Pangus varieties to 9375 farmers. For Livestock, 942 groups were formed and more than 927 demos were conducted. Nearly 20,000 farmers adopted improved breed/husbandry practices whereas 11,600 fish farmers adopted improved aquaculture. 

Over 87,000 farmers have received various skills and technical trainings, in crops, livestock, fisheries and from the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation and Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute.

The IAPP is funded by the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), a multi-donor Trust Fund. The World Bank is supervising the project (GAFSP Grant of US$ 46.31) and the remaining of US$ 3.69 million is being used for a separate capacity building component supervised by the FAO. The project is being jointly implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock.