NATIONAL AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM II FARM TO TABLE WITH BETTER TECHNOLOGY APPROVAL DATE: END DATE: TOTAL COMMITMENT: IMPLEMENTING AGENCY BASIC June 5 June 30 $176.06 million Ministry of Agriculture, INFORMATION 2015 2021 Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock OVERVIEW Bangladesh has done remarkably well in improving agricultural productivity. Around 70 percent people in Bangladesh live in rural areas and over 47 percent of the country’s total labour force are engaged in agriculture. Agriculture occupies around three-quarters of Bangladesh’s land and supports the livelihoods of the majority of rural people. Hence, achieving economic growth and reducing poverty require policies and investments conducive to lasting transformational changes in rural areas including technological innovation in agriculture. The National Agriculture Technology Program (NATP II) aims to support the government’s strategic priorities in agriculture by increasing agriculture productivity and improving farmers’ access to markets. Small-scale farmers will benefit from stronger linkages with research, on-farm demonstrations of improved technologies, training and skills development, agricultural extension services, and co-funding productive assets. 8 CHALLENGE TOWARDS Smallholder farmers account for over 80 percent of the country’s rural population. However, agriculture’s contribution to THE FUTURE Bangladesh’s economy has declined overtime: the share of agriculture in total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has declined from The project will 28 percent in 1990 to 13 percent in 2018. This, in turn, has contributed to a decline in employment growth. Further, frequent demonstrate the natural disasters severely affects the agriculture sector. opportunity for diversification of Besides inadequate research, recurrent natural disasters and deficiencies in technology hinder improvements in agricultural agricultural production productivity. Weak integration and poor linkages with more profitable value chains stymie private investments. Small and achieve target results landholders, especially women, lack access to finance for basic investments required to integrate with more profitable value/ in productivity growth, supply chains and the modern retail sector. A large gap remains between the commodity value farmers get and ultimate retail market access, jobs, value. Lengthy supply chains persist with poor linkages among chain participants, information asymmetry and post-harvest nutrition and resilience. deterioration. There is a need to integrate climate smart agriculture (CSA) with agricultural sector development strategies for a coherent roadmap to deal with climate risk. APPROACH NATP II supports government’s strategic priorities in agriculture by helping improve productivity and food security, and adaptation to climate change. The project is implemented in 57 districts targeting small and marginal farmers, especially women. NATP II seeks to strengthen the capacity of the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) and extension services to generate demand driven new and improved agricultural technologies. It contributes to increasing farm yields and diversifying agricultural production by improving agricultural research and extension. The project also supports modern farm practices to increase farm productivity and reduce post-harvest losses. The project targets to increase 14 to 100 percent average annual yields of select commodities. The project is focused on market-oriented production, and on small and marginal farmers’ access to and participation in markets. This includes enhancing capacity of value chain actors, investing on value-adding activities, alliance building with private sector, etc. The project also introduced an Agriculture Innovation Fund for research and adoption of innovative technologies. EXPECTED RESULTS Over 1 million farmers (over 190 competitive research grants sub-projects 30 commodity and marketing 35% are female) mobilized into have been implemented through which 64 possible centers established with about 40523 Common Interest Groups technologies are in the process of being generated 4,303 tons of product sold so far THE WORLD BANK IN BANGLADESH | 9