Dissemination of appropriate crop, fish and livestock farming technologies, farmers’ capacity building, value chain interventions and marketing system development have been at the core of the operations of PKSF’s Agriculture Unit. It also contributes to formulation of policies regarding the fisheries and the livestock sectors in Bangladesh.
AGRICULTURE ACTIVITIES
Cultivation of a number of high value, high yielding and specific nutrient or vitamin-rich crop varieties such as aromatic and nutrition-fortified rice, summer watermelon and tomato, capsicum, squash, rock melon, beetroot etc are being promoted at the field level through the Agriculture Unit of PKSF. At present, a good number of IAU-expanded technologies such as summer tomato, summer watermelon, different HYV rice varieties are being widely replicated by the farmers at the field level.
Agricultural technologies suitable for climatically vulnerable areas such as irrigation in salinity-prone areas and crop production through rainwater harvesting in croplands are being successfully expanded.
All these technological expansion and skill development activities are contributing to increasing income of farmers and, as a result, the demand for agricultural credit at the field level is also increasing.
In the agriculture sector, specialized projects on oil, pulse and spice crops were being implemented in the financial year 2022-23. A total of 32,415 demonstrations on 32 different agricultural technologies were established and 1,368 field days were arranged to disseminate the positive results of these environment-friendly technologies among the farmers up to June 2023.
Besides, 687 USG applicators, 1,31,546 pheromone lures, 27,076 perching sticks, 2,05,702 fruit bags were provided to farmers. At the same time, vegetable seeds were distributed among 9,706 households for homestead gardening.
‘Alternative Crop Production and Generating Multiple IGAs instead of Tobacco’ is a separate program implemented in predominantly tobacco-growing areas – Kushtia, Lalmonirhat, Bandarban and Cox’s Bazar – under the IAU. At present, about 3,121 tobacco growers are producing various high-value alternative food crops instead of tobacco on 1,917 hectares of land under the program. Realizing the benefits (financial, health, environmental and educational) of food crops over tobacco, 1,032 tobacco growers have given up tobacco cultivation.
Fisheries Activities
The Agriculture Unit provides a range of technical support to farmers. These include market linkage support, entrepreneurship development, capacity building and institutional linkage establishment. As of June 2023, a total of 24,220 aquaculture demonstrations have been established at the grassroots.
Besides, 13,845 kgs of fish fries was released in open water bodies to increase natural fish production and a total of 19,461 fishing gears were distributed among the farmers. Under the program, 540 fish-farming clusters have been developed.
In 2022-2023, the fishery technologies expanded through the Unit included crab fattening, soft shell crab culture, carp fattening/carp fish fattening, high value chital-air-shol-carp fish polyculture, off-flavor-free pangasius-carp fish polyculture, koral-tilapia-carp fish polyculture in coastal regions, entrepreneur development in fish fry rearing businesses/nursery ponds, ornamental fish culture & marketing, floating cage fish culture, high value fish culture in tanks, fish culture using biofloc technology etc.
Livestock Activities
In the last fiscal year, the technologies that were disseminated in the livestock sector included goat fattening, broiler-type pekin duck production, dairy cattle production, climate-resilient BAU chicken rearing, safe egg production through hybrid layer chicken rearing, cow-calf-based beef cattle fattening, beef cattle fattening in cost-effective methods, processing and marketing of diversified milk products, suborno chicken production, artificial hatchery of ducks etc.
Through the livestock program, 60,796 demonstration farms were established till June 2023. They included 313 goat farm clusters with at least 15 farms in each cluster, 154 duck farm clusters with at least 7-8 farms in each, 175 native chicken farm clusters, 92 safe egg producing layer poultry farm clusters, and 135 safe meat producing BAU-Bro color chicken farm clusters.
Mass vaccination was conducted against Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Anthrax, PPR, Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (HS), Black Quarter (BQ), New Castle Disease (ND), Duck Plague to nearly 1.87 million livestock and poultry animals. It has also provided broad spectrum anthelmintics to nearly 0.58 million large and small ruminants as of June 2023. California Mastitis Test (CMT) kits were provided for early detection of mastitis in dairy cattle.
As of June 2023, the IAU has trained 24,925 farmers on modern fish farming technologies and 60,665 farmers on modern livestock farming technologies. The IAU conducted 3,047 ‘Krishi Poramorsho Kendra’ where farmers have direct access to upazila-level Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Extension Officers.
Agricultural Mechanization Program
Agriculture is one of the determinants of socio-economic stability of Bangladesh. It plays an important role in ensuring food and nutrition security of the growing population of the country, creating employment and economic development. Goal-2 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture, and the government has given importance to the application and expansion of modern technologies in the agricultural sector for sustainable agricultural production.
Due to population growth in Bangladesh, the amount of arable land is decreasing while frequency of floods, droughts and salinity ingress are increasing. As a result, the risks in crop production is increasing. Apart from these reasons, shortage of agricultural labor has become pervasive. Thus, mechanization in agriculture has become inevitable for ensuring increased agricultural production in the country.
PKSF is financing in the agricultural mechanization sector on a pilot basis with a view to implementing and promoting farmer-friendly agricultural mechanization. The objective of this pilot program is to analyze the proper implementation and financial and technical feasibility of agricultural machineries. For this purpose, technical assistance is being provided in the form of loans and training, machinery exhibitions, field days, agricultural machinery demonstration centers, construction of sheds etc on partnership basis.
Farmers are showing interest in using agricultural machineries. Agricultural entrepreneurs and cooperatives are buying and using agricultural machineries like combine harvesters, transplanters, rice harvesters and thrashers, tractors, power tillers, fish feed processors etc at the field level. As a result of the use of all these machines, the time spans needed for planting and harvesting crops are reduced, and less labor is required than in the past.
Expansion of environment-friendly technology
- High-value and new variety crop technology among farmers
- Climate shock-tolerant varieties
- Good agricultural practices for safe vegetable production
- Preservation of native varieties
- Climate-adaptive technology
- Preservation of soil quality
- Food and health management in fish farming
- Climate-adaptive native and high-value fish culture
- Processing and marketing of livestock products
- Environment-friendly waste management, etc.
Financial services:
- Appropriate financial services for farm, fisheries and livestock preservation, processing, marketing and sales
- Technical services for the same
Skills development and management:
- Training farmers for sustainable and environment-friendly development
- Linking POs and relevant PKSF staff with research and educational institutions for knowledge enhancement
Safe food production and marketing:
- Ensure production of safe farm products
- Take effective measures for processing and marketing of these products
