New MoU signed with the Bangladesh Water Partnership

News

The First Addendum to the 2018 agreement between Bangladesh Water Partnership (BWP) and SFSA Bangladesh continues our joint water project.

BWP and SFSA Bangladesh now head into their second year “Introducing Water-Efficient Technologies (IWET) to Barind tract” . This forms part of the Barind Agri-Water Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP), funded by the Coca-Cola Foundation.

The partnership provides about $267,000 to SFSA Bangladesh for supplying, testing and introducing suitable water-efficient techniques for mango orchards and paddy fields in the dry Rajshahi division. DASCOH Foundation is the implementing-partner. 

This project is helping to establish a further 20 Farmers’ Hubs in this area. Four are already running commercially. This is possible thanks to support from the Coca-Cola Foundation, based in Atlanta, USA.

SFSA Bangladesh's role is to create value for resource-poor small farmers through innovation in sustainable agriculture and the activation of value chains. It does this currently in four main ways:

  • Farmers’ Hub Agri-Marketing Enterprise (FHAME) – This focuses on agricultural solutions for smallholders, from input to output. The Farmers’ Hub business model is to provide a concentration of commercial units where agricultural products can be aggregated. Local farmers benefit from improved access to agri-products, machinery, training and know-how.

  • Changing Economics of Santal Through Agriculture (ChESTA) - resource-poor and marginalized ethnic Santal people are involved in a range of commercial group-based activities, such as roadside planting, livestock-rearing, and homestead gardening. Our aim is to improve Santal lives and livelihoods through better opportunities to raise their nutritional and economic status.

  • Commercialization of Small-Scale Mechanization (CoSMec) - this project facilitates smallholders’ access to farm machinery,  by developing a market for sustainable local service provision. The project is funded by CIMMYT.

  • E-Farmers’ Hub: The E-Hub is a digital platform combining a mobile app and web dashboard for digitalizing Farmers’ Hubs and similar franchise businesses. Users retain control of their business transactions, and benefit from analytical business information for decision-making. SFSA Bangladesh has developed and deployed the E-hub to digitize, record and track progress of Farmers’ Hubs' performance, and increase their efficiency.  

SFSA Bangladesh is also engaged in Harmonization of Agricultural Sustainability from Insurance (HASI), Water-Efficient Technologies for Barind Area (IWET) and Transforming SMEs into Growth-Oriented Business Ventures (SMART CAP). Funding for these comes, respectively, from the Swiss organizations SDC and SCBF, the Coca-Cola Foundation and BFPB/UKaid.