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Background
Danida has been supporting the agriculture sector of Bangladesh for more than 30 years. The support was first organized into a Sector Programme Support (SPS) framework in 2000 with the commencement of the first phase of the Agriculture Sector Programme Support (ASPS-1), which ended on September 2006. During annual consultation between Bangladesh and Denmark in 2004, both governments agreed to continue the second phase of the Agriculture Sector Programme Support (ASPS-II) with the objective: “Improved living standards of poor and small farmer households through enhanced, integrated and sustainable agricultural productivity.
ASPS-II builds on successful approaches of ASPS-I in terms of promoting farmers field schools, farmer/fishermen/small holder livestock community based organizations to facilitate transfer of technology in order to create opportunities to increase productivity. Special emphasis is being given to improve food security and nutrition of the household.
Objectives of AEC
The Agricultural Extension Component (AEC) is one of the three components of ASPS-II, which aims to achieve two immediate objectives as follows:
- Improved, demand driven, integrated and decentralized extension systems developed to support poor, marginal and small farmer households, and
- Enhanced capacity of concerned agencies of MOA.
Approaches and Strategies
Both these objectives of AEC address the policy implementation stated in Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The key strategic considerations for achieving these objectives are:
- A demand driven Integrated Crop Management (ICM) approach towards agricultural extension that addresses a number of key issues in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) concerning the crops sub-sector, along with issues in the livestock and fishery sub-sectors that are to be addressed through operational linkages at field level.
- A FFS approach to agricultural extension relating to the crops sub-sector and with linkage to livestock and fisheries, as well as nutritional and food use issues, homestead gardening, marketing, and activities to meet the special needs of women.
While maintaining a nationwide scope, the AEC focuses on the needs of poor, marginal and small farmer households in the North and North West regions, and Southern part (Greater Barisal and Greater Noakhali) of Bangladesh including:
- Support to groups that need extension assistance related to one subject of common interest, or to diversify into different types of agricultural and marketing activities; public and private extension providers will be mobilized as required.
- Farmer-to-farmer training based on developing FTs and a strategy that FTs should conduct an increasing proportion of the FFS as the AEC progresses.
- Enhancing the capacity of associated agricultural agencies of MoA in quality assurance, regulatory support, monitoring and new technology development and research.
Implementing Agencies
The Department of Agricultural Extension is the lead agency for AEC and anchored within the Field Services Wing of DAE. The associate agencies of AEC are: (a) Seed Wing/SCA of Ministry of Agriculture, (b) Agricultural Information Services (AIS), and c) On farm Research Division (OFRD) of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI)
Target Groups
The target groups of AEC are poor, marginal and small farmer households cultivating 0.5-2.5 acres of land, with a focus on crop based agricultural development and with scope for integrating livestock and aquaculture production. DAE also prioritizes this section of the rural community. The AEC will also target small-scale agricultural entrepreneurs and providers for input supply, marketing and ago-processing. In addition, there will be a particular emphasis on support to the progression from FFS to farmer groups, CBO’s and farmer associations with the goal of enabling agri-business and micro-enterprise development within these groups.
Area of Operation
The AEC will mainly operate in North and North West regions, Southern part (Greater Barisal and Greater Noakhali) and Comilla, Manikganj and Tangail districts Bangladesh, which covers about 217 upazilas in 32 districts. AEC also covers another 111 upazilas under 32 districts through ASPS-I consolidation activities. The geographical distribution of upazilas under districts and division has shown in the following table:
Table- 1: Area of Operation of AEC
| Division |
District |
Number of Upazila |
Barisal |
6 |
39 |
Chittagong |
4 |
24 |
Dhaka |
5 |
23 |
Rajshahi |
16 |
125 |
Sylhet |
1 |
6 |
Total |
32 |
217 |
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