Starting the battle at the bottom

Md Sayed Mofidul Babu | Published: February 04, 2017 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Halima Begum, a married woman in her early thirties in Rangpur, was passing her days in extreme poverty even few years ago. Married to one Mokhlesar Rahman of Kafrikhal Baluapara village under Mithapukur Upazila of the district, she said, "It was very difficult for me to manage my family of six members with the paltry amount of income my husband eked out as an ultra-poor farmer. We could not even eat two meals a day but now we can afford three meals."
Halima has managed to get rid of acute poverty with the assistance from the agriculture value chain project 'Growing Together'. Under the project she learnt to produce more crops using modern technology and earned good profit by selling the produce. Thus she has begun contributing financially to her impoverished family. She has brought financial solvency to her family and now she dreams of a better future of their three children.
Like her, Salema Begum, another beneficiary of the project, is also earning enough to save by selling the crops cultivated on her land. She is thinking of buying goats with the profit while Saidul Mia is looking to build a 'tin-shed' house to improve his living standard.
Like them many other rural poor men and women have become able to change their fortune with support from the project 'Growing Together'. The programme has ushered in a new era for the poor, ultra-poor and marginalised farmers. For the beneficiaries of the project the 'Growing Together' means not only feeding their families but also economic self- reliance.
The partnership project between the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), an international development charity that combats poverty with the enduring power of volunteering, and Syngenta is being implemented with support from VSO's local partner Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS).
The 'Growing Together' is a unique programme, co-created by VSO and Syngenta, which is aimed at sustainably improving the livelihood of smallholder farmers in Bangladesh and creating thriving rural communities.
The partnership between VSO and Syngenta is playing a vital role in changing the socio- economic condition of the poor and ultra-poor farmers in north-western Bangladesh by making farming more lucrative to them.
The 3.5-year partnership combines Syngenta's agricultural expertise and technology with VSO's international development expertise and volunteering opportunities.
'Growing Together' aims to address the issues faced by smallholder farmers by:
--Providing training and replacing existing techniques by applying more efficient methods that produce higher yields through use of demo plots and field days. Working with farmers to diversify their crops, enabling farmers to better react to market demand as well as helping them become more resilient to changing conditions.
--Development of farmers' groups that have greater access to markets and benefit from increased bargaining power leading to better prices.
Syngenta has a strong commitment to sustainability and helping smallholders to increase productivity. In its Good Growth Plan, Syngenta has set itself the highest sustainability targets to be reached by 2020 and is working closely with multiple partners to find common solutions to addressing global challenges of food security. The Growing Together programme aims to increase internal awareness about the challenges of smallholders and to help improve the community's economic and food security.
Since its inception at the end of 2015, the Growing Together project benefited 7,000 marginalised farmers and over 1,300 young people in the northwestern part of the country. Farmers adopted more effective methods of rice and vegetable production, which increased their yields. They received quality seeds and training, and achieved fair prices for their produce, leading to increased incomes.
Farmers' centres provide smallholders with access to various services, boosting farmers' productivity and income through better inputs and access to market. One Farming Centre supports dozens of Farmers' Groups with approximately 30 members in each group. There are 230 farmers' groups under the project at the moment, and approximately 30 per cent of the farmers are women. The Farming Centres act as hubs for sales and learning. Farmers elect board members to support the management and communication with stakeholders, arrange training, access to fair-price seeds, machinery, fertilisers and pesticides and help learn how to sell their products as a group to obtain much higher incomes.
A key focus of the programme is development of a Social Franchise Model that allows the Farmer Centres to operate sustainably. Its success means this model can be replicated in other parts of Bangladesh and has the potential to be adopted in other countries.
Significant changes have been noticed in farmers' behaviour in just one year under the project. Eighty 80 per cent of farmers have reported using new agronomic techniques and technologies, which are designed to reduce their reliance on inputs, improve yields and increase productivity. These are farmers who prior to this programme had never received any Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) training, support nor had any exposure to any NGO programme. Sixty per cent of farmers are now engaged in value chain initiatives, which have already resulted in increased income from their crops. For the first time ever, farmers are fully aware of the dangers of pesticides and are starting to use personal protective equipment. They have set up farmers' groups, opened bank accounts for the first time in their lives and have started group savings accounts.
At the end of the first year (2015), 450 farmers were surveyed and the results were impressive:
--Farmers involved in the programme saw yields increase by 20 per cent or more
--Ninety per cent of farmers increased the net income by at least 50 per cent
--Seventy per cent of farmers at least doubled their income
--Participant farmers diversified crops by more than 20 per cent
--Pesticide and chemical fertiliser use was reduced by up to 23 per cent and 13 per cent respectively.
The programme is currently assessing the results from 2016 and as part of this, will carry out a social impact assessment to fully understand the difference the project has made.
Before the 'Growing Together', farmers received high-interest loans (15-30 per cent interest) from micro-financing institutions and did not meet the criteria to receive bank loans. Collectively as a farmers' group they receive a single loan to be divided among the members while making monthly deposits to be used as capital for the next growing season.
Santal Tribes are among the most marginalised and ultra-poor in the community who usually used to work as seasonal labourers on farms and earn less than $200 a year. But now with the initial micro-loan provided by the Growing Together project, 13 members of a group of them had enough money to rent a plot of land, which they farmed jointly.
The opening of retail banking branches in the hubs in partnership with Bank Asia in January last has given the beneficiary farmers of the Growing Together programme fresh hopes, as they have got access to proper financing and easy bank loan facilities at low interest rates. Thus they have found their way to get rid of backstreet moneylenders and high-interest microfinance.
"Earlier, we faced difficulties in taking loans from banks, NGOs and local moneylenders. But now we will be able to take loans easily from the retail banking branch of Bank Asia. Its interest is also lower. We never imagined that a bank branch would be there in our locality but VSO and Bank Asia made it possible for us," said Majibor Rahman, a beneficiary of the project at Kafrikhal area in Mithapukur.
Chief Executive of VSO Philip Goodwin visited the Growing Together Project along with its country director in Bangladesh Simon Brown at Kafrikhal area under Mithapukur upazila last month.
"Vision of VSO is a world without poverty. VSO recruits professionals to work as volunteers, living and working alongside local populations in developing countries", said CEO of VSO Philip Goodwin.
"Around 7,000 marginalised, poor and ultra-poor farmers have been benefited so far through the project and we are expecting to reach out to 100,000 farmers within the next three years", he said.
"VSO is different from other organisations because of its volunteers. We are working with international volunteers, corporate volunteers, national volunteers and youth volunteers. Our volunteers are high quality professionals. They work closely with the farmers so they are familiar with the requirements of the farmers", said the CEO.
"Presently, VSO is running its projects in 25 countries of the world. We are hoping to operate in 40 countries within the next three years. Good news is that poverty is being eradicated throughout the world. I hope Bangladesh will be a middle income country soon. We are also thinking to send Bangladeshi volunteers to other countries as well", Goodwin added.
With nearly 10,000 farmers currently in scope, the Growing Together project recently revised its ambition and now intends to reach out to 100,000 farmers in the next couple of years. The sustainability of the project revolves around a social franchise which will service a network of 100 Farmer Centres, managed by local entrepreneurs, allowing farmers to access quality inputs, mechanisation and national/international markets for aggregated outputs (crops).
The key to sustainability is a different perspective towards value chains, which are often seen as linear and transactional - meaning everyone wants to buy at the cheapest price and sell at the greatest profit without caring about the health of the entire value chain. Growing Together is based on a "nested value chain" approach that puts the farmer at the centre. By reaching out to a wider range of businesses through the social franchise (agricultural businesses, food businesses, banking and insurance companies) the 'Growing Together' aims to establish direct relationships between smallholders and private sector companies with a mutual vested interest in the health of the communities.

The writer is The FE's Rangpur Correspondent