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Annual Progress Report
July 2014-June 2015
Integrated Farm Management Component (IFMC)
Agricultural Growth and Employment Programme
Department of Agricultural Extension
September 2015
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABBREVIATIONS
1. Component Data ...................................................................................... 1
2. Executive Summary ................................................................................ 2
3. Project area .............................................................................................. 3
4. Introduction ............................................................................................. 6
5. Management and administration ............................................................. 8
6. Main Activities description ................................................................... 19
7. Progress towards objectives .................................................................. 29
8. Achievement of Outputs ........................................................................ 39
9. Strategic Issues ...................................................................................... 59
10. Risk Analysis and Mitigation ............................................................... 67
11. Budget and Expenditure ........................................................................ 69
Annex
Annex 1: Work Plan for IFMC (July 2014 to June 2015)
Annex 2: Information sheet: Business Focal Person (BFP) Market Linkage Training
Annex 3: Success Stories
Annex 4: Details budget and expenditure for 2014-2015
Annex 5: IFMC Gender Strategy Update
iii
ABBREVIATIONS
AAO - Assistant Agriculture Officer
ABDC - Agri-business Development Component (ABDC)
ACDO - Assistant Community Development Officer
ADP - Annual Development Plan
AEO - Agriculture Extension Officer
AESA - Agro-Ecological System Analysis
AFSP - Agriculture and Food Security Project
AGEP - Agricultural Growth and Employment Programme
AM&EO - Assistant Monitoring & Evaluation Officer
APD - Assistant Project Director
ASPS II - Agricultural Sector Support Programme, Phase II
AWP&B - Annual Work Plan and Budget
BADC - Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation
BBT - Ballot Box Test
BDT - Bangladeshi Taka
BEFTN - Bangladesh Electronic Fund Transfer Network
BFP - Business Focal Person
CDO - Community Development Officer
CMU - Component Management Unit
CSC - Component Steering Committee
DAE - Department of Agricultural Extension
Danida - Danish International Development Agency
DG - Director General
DKK - Danish Kroner
DLS - Department of Livestock Services
DoF - Department of Fisheries
DPA - Development Project Aid
DPD - Deputy Project Director
DPP - Development Project Proforma
DT - Departmental Trainer
EC - Executive Committee
ECNEC - Executive Committee of the National Economic Council
EoD - Embassy of Denmark
FBF - Farmer Business Facilitator
FBS - Farmer Business School
FF - Farmer Facilitator
FFS - Farmer Field Schools
FGD - Focus Group Discussion
FMA - Farm Management Analysis
FO - Farmer Organisation
GoB - Government of Bangladesh
HC - Horticulture Center
iv
HVC - High Value Crop
IA - Internal Auditor
ICM - Integrated Crop Management
ICT - Information Communication Technology
IDA - Institutional Development Adviser
IDO - Institutional Development Officer
IFM - Integrated Farm Management
IFMC - Integrated Farm Management Component
IMED - Internal Monitoring and Evaluation Department
IPM - Integrated Pest Management
LFA - Logical Frame Work Analysis
M&E - Monitoring and Evaluation
M&EO - Monitoring & Evaluation Officer
MF - Master Facilitator
MFI - Micro Finance Institution
MIS - Management Information System
MLT - Market Linkage Training
MoA - Ministry of Agriculture
MoU - Memorandum of Understanding
MT - Master Trainer
NA - National Adviser
NATA - National Agriculture Training Academy
NGO - Non Government Organisation
PD - Project Director
PIC - Project Implementation Committee
PM&E - Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation
QA - Quality Assurance
R&P - Review & Planning
RDPP - Revised Development Project Profoma
RFLDC - Regional Fishery and Livestock Development Component, ASPS-II
RIC - Regional IFMC Coordinator
RTC - Regional Technical Coordinator
SAAO - Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officer
SAPPO - Sub-Assistant Plant Protection Officer
SLL - Season Long Learning
SL-TOT - Season Long Training of Trainers
SMS - Subject Matter Specialist
T&E - Training & Extension
TA - Technical Assistant
TNA - Training Need Assessment
ToT - Training of Trainers
UAO - Upazila Agriculture Office
UFO - Upazila Fishery Officer
ULO - Upazila Livestock Officer
1
1. Component Data
Country: Bangladesh
Name of Program: Agricultural Growth and Employment Program.
(AGEP)
Name of Component: Integrated Farm Management Component (IFMC)
Executing Agency: Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE)
Sponsoring Ministry: Ministry of Agriculture (MoA)
Component Period: July 2013 to June 2018
Date of Approval of ECNEC: 19 January 2014
Administrative Approval from MoA: 12 February 2014
Estimated cost of the Project:
i) Total : 43,200.00 million BDT
(300 million DKK)
ii) GOB : 10,800.00 million BDT
(75 million DKK)
iii) DPA : 32,400.00 million BDT
(225 million DKK)
Project Area: 61 Districts and 373 Upazila ( Excludes 3 Hill Districts).
Project Director :
Md Iqbal
Telephone No. 8115697 (Ext. 102)
Email : [email protected]
Danida Adviser :
Rilla Norslund
Telephone No. 8115697 (Ext. 101)
Email : [email protected]
2
2. Executive Summary
This is the second Progress Report of Integrated Farm Management Component (IFMC)
covering the period July 2014 to June 2015. The report covers the second full year of
component implementation and the year during which implementation got into full swing for
IFM FFS implementation and during which the Farmers’ organization strategy was shaped
and drafted and implementation moved from piloting to early roll out.
All staff joined during this period and a major orientation workshop took place in February
2015, as well as various capacity building activities for IFMC staff. Regional and district
offices were fully established during the year and systems for regional management and
administration have been put in place. Monitoring and data collection systems have been
developed and fully established during the period under review.
During the year Steering committee met once as well as two meetings of the Project
Implementation Committee chaired by the DG DAE. The project also faced scrutiny through
an Inception Review as well as a second visit from Danida headquarters in form of an
Appraisal mission for future support. Joint and Special monitoring teams of GOB also visited
activities and made recommendations for improvement.
During the reporting period 3317 IFM FFS were implemented in 371 Upazilas of 61 districts.
The FFS were facilitated by 1706 project trained Farmer Facilitators (FFs) who all received
regular refresher courses and participated in review and planning workshops at the start of
each FFS seasons. One hundred DAE officers received season-long training in IFM FFS and
from all IFMC Upazilas DAE officers received crash course, refresher courses, orientation
courses and participated in review and planning workshops to build capacity and ensure
quality monitoring of FFS activities. A total of 165,155 farmers participated in IFM FFS
during the reporting period, of which 53% were female.
The FO strategy was developed to a final draft and approved for implementation, by DAE.
Activities moved from piloting to the beginning of market linkage activities. Scale up is yet
to take place but plans are well developed with guidelines and curriculum drafted and tested
for full roll out of activities in IFMC Upazilas.
This report contains a detailed description of major activities in Chapter 6 for those not
familiar with IFMC, as well as a number of case studies and success stories in the annexes
which give a more in-depth picture of the impact of IFMC activities from the point of view of
beneficiaries.
3
3. Project area
Region District Upazila
(Nos.)
Region District Upazila
(Nos.)
Barisal Barguna 5 Noakhali 9
Barisal 10 Brahmanbaria 7
Bhola 7 Chandpur 8
Jhalokathi 4 Comilla 11
Patuakhali 7 Khulna Bagerhat 8
Pirojpur 7 Chuadanga 4
Faridpur 7 Jessore 7
Gopalganj 5 Jhenaidha 6
Madaripur 4 Khulna 7
Rajbari 5 Kushtia 5
Shariatpur 5 Magura 3
Dhaka Dhaka 2 Meherpur 2
Gazipur 2 Narail 3
Manikganj 6 Sathkhira 6
Munshiganj 4 Rajshahi Bogra 12
Narayanganj 1 Chapai Nawabganj 5
Narshingdi 5 Joypurhat 5
Tangail 8 Naogaon 11
Jamalpur 7 Natore 6
Kishoreganj 8 Pabna 9
Mymensingh 7 Rajshahi 9
Netrokona 10 Sirajganj 9
Sherpur 5 Rangpur Dinajpur 12
Sylhet Habiganj 4 Gaibandha 7
Moulavibazar 4 Kurigram 9
Sunamganj 4 Lalmonirhat 5
Sylhet 4 Nilphamari 6
Chittagong Chittagong 3 Panchagarh 5
Cox's bazar 3 Rangpur 8
Feni 6 Thakurgaon 5
Laxmipur 5
Total 61 Districts, 373 Upazilas
4
Project area map
5
Map of Project Region
6
4. Introduction
This report covers the activities of the Integrated Farm Management Component (IFMC) for
the period July 2014 to June 2015, the second year of the project. IFMC operates in 373
upazilas of 61 districts of Bangladesh. The three districts making up the Chittagong Hill
tracts are not covered by IFMC but are covered in a separate UNDP implemented program
Agriculture and Food Security Project (AFSP) also supported by AGEP funding.
IFMC is one of three components of the Agricultural Growth and employment Programme,
(AGEP) financed jointly by the Governments of Bangladesh and Denmark. IFMC is
implemented through the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) of the Ministry of
Agriculture (MOA) and will run for five years, from July 2013 to June 2018. Due to the
mentioned delays in start of full implementation a one year no cost extension is expected to
be approved.
The target groups of IFMC are landless, marginal and small farmer households cultivating up
to 2.5 acres of land, with a focus on total farm activities and diversification and adoption of
Integrated Farm Management (IFM) Farmer Field School (FFS) promoted technologies and
management practices. The component emphasizes empowerment of female and male
farmers through formation of, and support to, Farmer Organizations (FO) including linking
farmer groups and organizations to markets and service providers with the target of increased
farm profitability.
As the first year of the component, starting from July 2013, was mainly concerned with
approval of project documents, particularly the DPP, establishment of component
infrastructure and recruitment of staff, 2014-2015 has in effect been the first year of full
implementation and has included finalizing start up activities such as recruitment of the
balance of component staff not recruited during the first year, and establishment of regional
offices and district offices which were not fully completed during the 2013-2014 period.
The Development objective of IFMC is ‘Pro-poor, inclusive and sustainable growth and
employment creation’ and the immediate objective is ‘Increased agricultural production
among female and male members of landless, marginal and small farming households.’
The specific objectives of the project are:
Female and male farmers have been empowered and increased number of total farm
activities and diversification adopting Integrated Farm Management (IFM) Farmer
Field Schools (FFS) promoted technologies and management practices
Female and male farmers have been empowered in Farmer Organization (FO)
formation and linked to service providers, market actors and micro-finance
organizations to increase farm profitability
National dialogue on farmer-centered extension approaches has been strengthened
7
The three objectives are reflected in the three outputs of IFMC each of which focus on the
achievement of one of the specific objectives.
Output 3 of IFMC includes activities relating to collaboration with AFSP as well as
collaboration with the third component of AGEP, Agri-business Development Component
(ABDC) on the National Platform for extension actors.
Project Orientation, February 2014 at National Agricultural Training Academy (NATA),
Gazipur.
8
5. Management and administration
Administration
Staffing and recruitment
For half of the reporting period IFMC has worked with less than the full project staff outlined
in the component document. While almost all GOB positions (27 of 29) including PD, DPD,
and two APD’s were deputed/ recruited by the end of last fiscal year (2013-2014) the
recruitment of TA staff was completed well into the current reporting period.
Recruitment of TA staff had started through a 5 member Selection Committee chaired by
Additional Secretary (Extension), Ministry of Agriculture from October 2014. By January
2015 all the recruitment had been completed and all 150 TA staff, including outsourced staff
had joined the project between November 2014 and February 2015.
Table-1: Status of the Manpower in IFMC
Personnel Category
(female in brackets)
Deputation Direct
recruitment
Out
sourcing
Total %
female
a) GOB Personnel:
GOB Officers
Head office 4 0 0 4
Regional office 12 0 0 12
District office 0 0 0 0
Total officers 16 0 0 16
GOB Staff
Head office 2 2 (1) 3(1) 7 (1) 14%
Regional office 0 0 6(1) 6(1) 17%
District office 0 0 0 0
Total Staff 2 2 9 (1) 13(1) 8%
Total GOB personnel 18 2(1) 9(1) 29(2) 7%
b) Danida Personnel:
Danida Officers
Head office 0 13 (3) 0 13(3) 23%
Regional office 0 36 (3) 0 36(3) 8%
District office 0 40 (13) 0 40(13) 33%
Total officers 0 89 0 89(19) 21%
Danida Staff
Head office 0 8 (1) 1 9 (1) 11%
Regional office 0 18 (1) 6 24 (1) 4%
District office 0 0 20(1) 20(1) 5%
Total staff 0 26(2) 27(1) 53(3) 6%
9
Personnel Category
(female in brackets)
Deputation Direct
recruitment
Out
sourcing
Total %
female
Total Danida staff 0 115 27 142(22) 16%
Total IFMC manpower 18 117 36 171 (24)
14%
Recruitment interview for the second International Advisor - Institutional Development (IDA)
was conducted in June 2014, but due to unexpected bureaucratic delays it took more than a
half year to get the advisor to Bangladesh.
The table above shows the breakdown of total staff including percentage of female officers
and staff. For Danida staff and outsourcing a great effort was made to recruit females,
however with limited success. To recruit females it was in several cases necessary to accept
candidates with lower skill levels than their male counterparts, and for this reason it is also
necessary to keep focus on building the capacity of female staff members. The majority of
females applied and qualified for the lower position, particularly in the districts, whereas, it
was difficult to recruit females for higher positions. The highest number of females is as
CDOs and ACDs with 4 and 9 out of 20, respectively.
Employment and probation
All Danida staff was initially employed on 3 month probation, however due to the level of
activities and the high number of staff recruited it was not found possible to properly assess
new employees during this period. The probation period for all was therefore extended to 6
months to allow time for proper assessment of all staff. Towards the end of probation period,
assessment was carried out prior to confirmation of employment. In cases where there were
concerns raised during the assessment a further three months extension was applied and a
thorough assessment will be made at the end of this period. Staff who resigned or were not
confirmed in employment were replaced through the guidance of the recruitment committee
chaired by the Additional Secretary Extension, MOA, through a process of interviewing short
listed candidates.
Capacity building of IFMC Staff
Initial Staff Orientation Workshop
In February 2015 IFMC conducted an Orientation Program for all the project personnel of
district, regional and head offices at the National Agriculture Training Academy, Gazipur.
The orientation program was designed and organized by Component Management Unit
(CMU) team. Project staff were grouped according to technical area into 4 teams: Training
and Extension Team, Farmer Organization Team, Finance and Administration Team and
Monitoring and Evaluation Team. Afternoon sessions were used for separate technical
orientation programs and trainings for the four groups while mornings were devoted to
overall project orientation for the entire group.
10
The orientation program brought together 120 participants and created a unique opportunity
for clarifying project objectives, getting to know each other, sharing experience and expertise
and going into some detail on expectations in terms of project document and job descriptions.
The orientation program was conducted using presentation, open discussion and brain
storming methods with high levels of participant involvement.
FFS team
The FFS team consist of Regional IFMC Coordinators (RIC), Regional Technical
Coordinators (RTC), Subject matter specialists (SMS) and Master Facilitators (Livestock and
fisheries). As the team members come from different technical and experience backgrounds it
has been necessary to build capacity on IFM FFS, facilitation skills and monitoring and
backstopping as required for successful implementation, backstopping and monitoring of FFS
in IFMC. After recruitment of RTC, MF and deputation of RIC and SMS, IFMC developed a
plan to provide necessary training and orientation.
An orientation course was organized in February 2015 just after recruitment of all team
members. This course focused on technical issues of the various modules, facilitation skill,
monitoring and backstopping of the IFM FFS and gender. Besides this, regular monthly work
plans and quarterly reports from RTC and MF have received regular feedback from
headquarters as well as comments and suggestions on performed activities. Mentoring by
CMU FFS team to Regional IFMC FFS team is part of the FFS quality assurance strategy of
IFMC.
FO team
FO staff came with a variety of backgrounds and different skill levels and while many had
experience working with FOs on institutional and social issues, few had experience with
collective marketing and business planning. Many had the attitude of being implementers
ready to follow instructions. Few had capacity and drive to independently analyzing FO and
market opportunities.
Therefore, to build the capacity of the FO staff to implement the FO strategy and to create a
team spirit and ensure a consistent direction of activities the HQ FO team conducted several
trainings for the staff:
In February a 5-day training and introduction was conducted with IDOs and half of
CDOs. CDOs were included to equip them with the necessary technical background
to support the upcoming batch of 22 FBSs.
On February 22-24 under the 3-day general IFMC Orientation Workshop the FO
subjects were introduced during three half-day sessions. All major output 2 subjects,
forms, tools and FBS curriculum were covered.
At the beginning of April all 46 staff, divided into two batches, got a 3-day Skills
Development Training to deepen their understanding of the project interventions and
the tools and methodologies used to work with the project stakeholders.
11
In May a one-day meeting with IDOs and CDOs was conducted to improve their
understanding of the FO selection tool and to make sure that they selected FOs
according to the criteria.
From June IDOs, CDOs and ACDOs have started participating in the 10-day BFP
trainings, six to eight at a time. This ensures in-depth understanding of the strategy,
tools, technical areas and activities. In addition, by mixing up with BFPs the IFMC
FO staff gets a chance to get insight into marketing issues raised by the farmers and to
establish good links to the FOs.
Female CDOs and ACDOs have been invited as assistants to DAE trainings to give
them an extra chance to learn and gain confidence.
IDOs have worked continuously to build capacity of CDOs and ACDOs and the IDA has
visited many district offices to discuss work progress and challenges with CDOs and ACDOs,
and to observe them in the field. By end of the project year many IDOs and CDOs have a
good understanding of the collective marketing and FO business. Some are working well
independently and organizing their duties meticulously. Those who have personal laptops,
cameras and Internet have used them while waiting for office equipment. Some have even
used own motorbikes. Among many of the field staff a good and enthusiastic work attitude is
emerging and it seems like motivation is high in many places. However, there is still a way to
go before all field staff fully understand their duties and how to work towards creating results.
To ensure good cooperation with stakeholders a special effort has been made to ensure CDOs
and ACDOs are respectful to farmers and Upazila DAE offices.
Finally, the FO team has developed an internal plan to develop those with good facilitation
skills to become facilitators of the many residential training courses on business and
collective marketing for BFPs and DAE officials. Especially, the team works to develop
female facilitators by giving females priority as assistants in training sessions and using them
as assistant facilitators until they are ready to become main facilitators.
M&E Team
The IFMC M&E systems has developed more towards result-based M&E systems in addition
to tracking spending. In this regard, there is a felt need of strong M&E capability. The IFMC
M&E team consist of six Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and six Assistant Monitoring
and Evaluation Officer based in six IFMC regional offices, one Database Officer at head
quarter and is headed by a National Adviser-M&E.
To improve the performances of M&E staff, IFMC has arranged orientation, workshops and
meetings during the reporting period. Initially two days orientations were organized to make
officers familiar with the project activities, LFA and M&E systems. The M&E team members
participated in different technical training like SLL and Review and Planning Workshops and
refresher courses for Farmer Facilitators.
12
As part of regular capacity development of M&E staff project has initiated to conduct
bimonthly meeting cum workshop. This bimonthly meeting cum workshop held in two days,
first day is for discussion on plan and progress of the period and second day is for capacity
development activities. These capacity development activities are including data collection,
newly developed data collection tools, data analysis, database management and other related
computer skills.
Accounts team
The IFMC project has a finance and accounts team consisting of 10 members, led by the
chief accountant. It consists of one chief accountant, one accounts officer, two internal
auditors based in the IFMC HQ, Dhaka, and six accountants based in the IFMC regional
offices.
Accounting software has been installed in regions and in HQ for maintaining IFMC books of
accounts. The software of regional offices is linked with that of HQ to facilitate the update
reporting of financial information. IFMC is transferring its funds to 373 upazilas, and is
making payments to its different stakeholders through Bangladesh Electronic Fund Transfer
Network (BEFTN). Regional accountants have already received training on maintenance of
accounting software, billing and procurement process, administrative issues and have also
been given hands-on training on any issues requiring special attention to ensure the efficient
accounting and financial management.
The two member internal audit team is engaged in giving the accountants hands-on training
and in monitoring their financial activities through visits to regional offices on a regular basis.
Regional offices
IFMC has six Regional Offices in Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Jessore, Barisal and
Comilla. Throughout the reporting period there has been an ongoing effort to decentralize
activity implementation and monitoring to regional offices as much as possible and to
empower regional teams to take ownership of activities in the regions.
The DAE regional office officials (Regional IFMC Coordinator and SMS) joined their
positions in June 2014, while Danida officials (RTC, MFs, IDO, MEO, AMEO and
Accountant Officer) joined from December to February 2015. Regional offices have been
equipped with furniture and necessary equipment including landlines, fax facilities and
internal communications systems as well as Broad Band internet facilities. Accounting
systems have been established with Tally software and accountants have received training
and orientation as necessary on systems and procedures of accounting. The M&E team
members are responsible for monitoring project activities and divide their time between
monitoring of activities for the Region and carrying out surveys and impact monitoring as
requested from Headquarters.
13
RIC and RTC are responsible for management of the regional office with support from the
whole regional team. Regions have fortnightly and/or monthly meetings for Regional staff. In
most cases the IFMC district staff under supervision of that regional office is invited to
meetings on a monthly basis. These meetings are for delegation of activities and discussion
on progress and upcoming activities.
Major activity of Regional Offices in the implementation of trainings and workshops at the
regional level, ensuring training facilities at the Horticulture Center used by that region are
maintained and monitoring of the implementation of regular activities including FFS and
market linkage activities. Regional offices regularly co-ordinate with IFMC district offices
through visits, meetings, mobile and monitoring online communication and assist them in
making activities plan and solving any problems as they arises. The Regional office is also
responsible to maintain regular communication with DAE officials at District and Upazila
levels and get for getting update on IFMC activity implementation, progress and any
problems. The relationship with DAE is considered vital not only for the implementation of
activities but also for the sustainably of all activities after the end of project implementation.
District Offices
The search for suitable office locations started in January and continued into February. By
March 2015 all 20 locations had been identified and lease terms had been negotiated and
agreed by IFMC HQ and landlords. The IFMC HQ team had provided a deed of agreement,
which was signed by the parties. The process of equipping the district offices has been
lengthy because of procurement procedures. Office furniture and stationary was sent to the
district offices by end of May and beginning of June and thereafter computers were provided.
The fact that many of the computers were from the RFLDC project caused further delays as
many required reconditioning and upgrading by the IFMC Systems Officer. After receiving
office equipment IDA and IDOs have worked with CDOs and ACDOs to ensure
establishment of suitable filing systems and RICs and RTCs have worked to equip the offices
with fans, curtains, bulbs etc.
Motorcycles have been distributed, two to each District office for use by CDO and ACDO,
who are required to be proficient motorcycle riders. What are considered ‘female friendly’
motorcycles have been procured for female staff members.
IFMC Database establishment
As part of strengthen the Management Information Systems of IFMC the M&E Unit has
developed a web-based interconnected database for collection and processing of information
for ease of access, up-dating and management. The objectives the database are;
- To store dynamic data such as number and particulars of FFS rollout in each seasons
- To store data on particulars of Farmers Facilitators (FFs)
- To store Farmers Organizations (FO) related data
- To store all kind of training data and
14
- Make it accessible to all IFMC concerned
Region level data can be updated regularly which saves time and resources and output can be
produced at all level (HQ, region, district and Upazila). The main feature of the database is
data entry option for assigned users and viewing report for all. There are more than 10 types
of structured report available for users by project, region, district and Upazila. Besides these
structured report custom report can be produced using the database as per requirement.
During the reporting period a total of 4,706 records on FFS, 2,075 FFs particulars and all
completed training information have been updated to the database.
Procurement
Procurement of materials is ongoing as per work plan and DPP. During the reporting period
major procurements included a Prado jeep, a Hi-lux pick-up and 46 motorcycles. CD vat
cheque for the 45 motorcycles procured in the first year and for the Toyota Hi-lux were
received, while CD Vat for the 46 motorcycles procured in 14-15 is under process. The
motorcycles were distributed to the regional offices (one per office) and 40 to district offices
(one for CDO and one for ACDO). There were also minor procurements of computers,
printers, photocopy machines etc as required by the various newly established offices
according to the DPP provisions. There were no other major procurements outside of the
normal procurements included in activity budgets, i.e. training materials and FFS materials
including trial materials, materials for FFs and Upazilas for FFS implementation.
15
Management
Component Steering Committee (CSC) / Project Implementation
Committee (PIC)
In the DPP there is provision for two committees to guide IFMC implementation: Component
Steering committee (CSC) and Project Implementation Committee (PIC). The CSC is an
inter-ministerial committee composed of 14 members and headed by the Secretary, Ministry
of Agriculture; the sponsoring ministry. The PIC is composed of 10 members and headed by
the Director General, DAE; the implementing agency. The CSC is responsible for reviewing
progress, approval of annual work-plans and budgets, as well as progress reports. PIC will
review IFMC progress and achievements. During the reporting period one CSC meeting was
held on August 31, 2015, along with other agenda discussed annual work plan and budget for
2014-2015 were approved during this meeting. Two PIC meeting (2nd and 3rd) were held
during the reporting period (one on March 19, 2015 and another one on May 18, 2015).
CMU Meetings
The IFMC CMU holds regular meetings to approve activities and expenditures, and discuss
on-going activities, delegate duties including organizing trainings and monitoring visits to the
headquarters team. The CMU consists of Project Director and Senior Adviser, but all
members of headquarters team act as resource persons to the CMU and attend and contribute
to CMU meetings when possible and necessary.
CMU and Regional Meetings
Every alternate month RICs and RTCs attend meetings in headquarters where they present
progress from the regions and discuss challenges and achievements with the headquarters
team.
Inception Review
AGEP Inception Review took place from 30 November to 14 December 2014.
The Review Aide Memoire provides a number of recommendations and suggestions for the
implementation of IFMC. A process action plan was developed for the implementation of
these recommendations which has been updated and included below:
Recommendation / action Deadline Progress
1 i).Adjust the job descriptions for future MTs in
order to expand the professional skill since the
number of qualified women possessing these skills
traditionally is higher;
ii) Address, in the gender strategies, barriers to
overcome mobility/social conditions e.g. develop
trust among reluctant husbands; introduce team of
two female FFs (for IFMC only); introduce mature
When
relevant
As soon
as
possible
For new recruitment
head hunt female
candidates, with IFMC
Selection committee.
Ongoing – good
success at FFS level,
some success at FF
level. Good progress at
16
Recommendation / action Deadline Progress
women as FF (i.e. post child care) in recruitment of
female FFs and apply accordingly
iii) Report against the gender action plans in the
annual reports.
July 2015
FO level (details in
report)
See annex
2
Future annual progress reports should include an
assessment of developments in risk.
July 2015
See chapter 9 on risk
3
i) Careful management attention to regional level
quality assurance of Upazilas’ monitoring and
backstopping of FFS/FF is required, especially
during the fast roll-out of decentralisation and up-
scaling of implementation at a time when new staff
are coming in.
ii) For quality control of FFS implementation,
monitoring arrangements should be reviewed, and
any necessary changes made at the various levels
iii) Thorough orientation and introduction should
be carried out for all IFMC officers to ensure
understanding of the FFS approach, technical and
empowerment.
iv) Review of job descriptions of newly recruited
staff, particularly those involved in FOs may be
required as the approach for support to FOs is
further piloted and developed.
Ongoing
attention
June 2015
ASAP
When
relevant
Quality assurance
strategy has been
developed and is being
implemented. Capacity
building of facilitators
at all levels in on-going
Monitoring
arrangements under
review, some changes
approved by Steering
committee will
included in RDPP
Orientation in February
and ongoing capacity
building
FO job descriptions
have been reviewed
and will be reviewed
after annual staff
evaluations.
4 Final FO strategy and implementation plan must be
prepared and should consider to:
i) develop more support modalities than only that
of running FBS; this could include engaging with
informal farmer groups
ii) establish and train networks of FFS participants
who have qualifications and interest in facilitating
market linkages (e.g. becoming agents of traders,
operating across several UPs)
iii) focus on the sustainability of interventions
based on a continued analysis of earlier experience
(RFLDC; Katalyst; Blue Gold).
May 2015
FO Team / FO strategy
See chapter 9 on
development of FO
strategy.
5 Final National Dialogue strategy and
implementation plan should be prepared
February
2015
First meeting held.
Working Committee
17
Recommendation / action Deadline Progress
appointed with
Director Field Services
as Chairman.
6 Future annual reporting should include progress
against log frame targets as well as expenditure per
output (actual figures).
July 2015 See chapter 7
Appraisal Mission visit from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark
An appraisal mission of the proposed Agricultural Growth and Employment Thematic
Programme (AGEP II) under the Bangladesh Country Programme for 2016-2021 (BCP) was
fielded in Bangladesh during 19-30 May 2015. Although the appraisal mission was not a
formal review, the Appraisal Team1participated in a detailed presentation and discussion
session in DAE/IFMC on component progress and implementation issues arising an annex
containing a number of observations and recommendations for the embassy and for the IFMC
management were developed. IFMC has to the extent possible integrated the suggestions and
advise of the team, however a number of suggestions require a revision of the DPP and will
be raised during this process.
IFMC IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES
Practical planning issues
If starting a new Bangladeshi planning period/DPP (rather than a revision of DPP)
after the current IFMC program, implementation will certainly be delayed (based on
previous experience)
DAE has to the Appraisal Team expressed a strong wish for a costed extension of the
present DPP for 2019-2021 rather than starting afresh for only a two-year period.
The Appraisal team recommends that the embassy should go a long way to cater for
that request. It should be possible to close Danida accounts upon completion of
present Danish appropriation. The last two years of the revised DPP would constitute
the partner documentation of the new engagement.
Market Linkages
It is the impression of the Appraisal team that the very late start of staff + staffing
issues + decentralization + quick scaling up poses a threat to the effectiveness,
efficiency and sustainability of the market linkages output.
IFMC is still in the process of learning from piloting. A draft market linkages strategy
prepared May 2015 and the strategy is a good step forward.
It is not clear to the Appraisal Team how or to which degree the lessons learnt from
the piloting has been translated into changes to curriculum or approach. It is
recommended that the component management carefully assesses both the internal
pilot evaluation, curricula and draft strategy.
1 The appraisal team consisted of the same members as for the AGEP I Inception Review performed in November/December 2014
18
Farmer Business Schools visited this time and in November were not convincing but
rather confirming the Appraisal Team’s concern of being supply driven.
The Appraisal Team is concerned that Output 2 is rolled out quickly during next
financial year without sufficient capacity and potentially also qualifications of staff at
all levels. It is recommended to develop capacity of component staff now and
continuously throughout the life of the IFMC.
If push for achieving present targets, quality is bound to be compromised. It is
recommended to roll out activities more cautiously and to revise targets accordingly,
potentially allowing the present targets to be met only by 2021.
Various options for concentrating efforts could be considered (zoning/clustering, not
all planned Upazilas to be covered before end of present IFMC – this may be
politically sensitive).
It should be considered to open up for other types of support during later revisions of
market linkage strategy – potentially training of individuals and networking between
groups and individual farmers with business potential Quality Assurance of FFS approach and FO activities in implementation
A working Quality Assurance system embedded in DAE is one of the main
parameters of sustainability of our support.
Ongoing Quality Assurance system appears to be in place at all levels but it remains
to be seen if the system is effective and applied in practice. Component management
is conscious about the importance of the internal QA, and the planned2016 mid-term
review will assess progress of QA carefully.
If QA is not ensured, implementation strategy may have to be revised in future
phase(s).
We need to ensure quality rather than quantity and it is recommended to lower output
targets if needed (they were very ambitious, especially for market linkages). In
parallel, it is recommended to revisit the outputs and formulate a set of definitions that
are fit for purpose. Finally, it is recommended to continuously build capacity of IFMC
staff on the essence of the FFS approach (empowerment aspects).
FFS activities should continue to focus on quality and sustainability of the capacity
built in terms of human resources. Strengthening facilitation skills and technical
knowledge of Farmer Facilitators should continue to be a priority. If budget allows,
orientation and some capacity building of SAAOs should be included since these are
the DAE officers closest to FFS implementation.
Sadar Upazilas
During the DPP approval process it was suggested to leave out Sadar Upazilas (those
Upazilas that house the District headquarters). The Appraisal Team understands that
an agreement was reached to drop them in year 3.
The Sadar Upazilas are found to be those with the largest local market potential and
relevance to the market linkages output.
Considering the opportunities for synergy with output 2 market linkage activities and
also with activities of the Agri-Business Development Component (ABDC), dropping
the Sadar Upazilas would potentially also have a negative impact on the achievement
of Output 2 and potentially also the ABDC.
The Appraisal Team therefore recommends not excluding the Sadar Upazilas.
19
6. Main Activities description
The main activities of IFMC are (Output 1) implementation of Farmer Field Schools on
Integrated Farm Management (IFM) with a module based curriculum allowing farmer groups
to select amongst crop, livestock and aquaculture modules and (Output 2) support to farmer
clubs and associations as a way to improve farmers links to input and output markets and
increase farm profitability.
Photo: IFM FFS participants develop and perform a drama on marketing
Output 1 - Implementation of Farmer Field School (FFS)
IFMC uses the Farmer Field School (FFS) extension methodology to provide demand driven
extension services to its target group. The approach of FFS is a non-formal education model.
In this approach, adult learning principles such as valuing farmers’ field experiences,
listening to their explanations, collaborative activities and encouraging group interactions but
mutually supportive and challenging are incorporated in order to promote the learning
process for conceptual change to take place. The Farmer Field School is not like a normal
school. It does not have four walls, tables, chairs and black boards, rather the participants of
this school sit near their crop field in an open place under the shade of a tree and the site of
school is not permanent. Crop field and homestead are the learning places for the participants
of FFS. An FFS lasts for one cropping season and next season the facilitators move on to
another village to work with a new group of farmers in the Upazila. The IFM FFS will be
20
established twice a year. First cycle will start from Rabi season (October/ November) and
second cycle from Kharif II season (May).
IFM FFS curriculum and modules
FFS is field oriented and based on learning by doing. IFMC implements FFS on Integrated
Farm Management (IFM) through 9 modules which deal with rice, livestock, fisheries,
homestead vegetable production and family nutrition. The curriculum of IFM FFS includes
Integrated Crop Management which includes soil health management, importance of
improved variety/seed, water management and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in the rice
and homestead vegetable gardening modules. In addition, homestead livestock management
(poultry, small and large ruminants) and pond fisheries management are included. Nutrition
through homestead gardening, hygiene, fruit tree management and improved food preparation,
and introduction to Farmers Organizations are also included. In IFM FFS integration is
practiced in two way, firstly integration of improve management practices in each component
of a farm and second integration is one component resource verses other component that is
byproduct of one component used as input of other component. Modules on High Value
Crops will be added as they are developed.
Photo: Group work session of FF ToT
FFS is a holistic approach to increasing production and improving livelihood of small, poor
and marginal farmers who represents about 85% of farmers in Bangladesh. FFS follows an
Experiential Learning Cycle using Agro-Ecological System Analysis (AESA) and Farm
Management Analysis (FMA) as decision making tools. Included in the curriculum are
21
several small studies or trials that are carried out by the participants to build up their
confidence.
In general an FFS has 50 participants from 25 households (usually one female and one male
from each household). At the end of an FFS cycle the participants a field day is held near the
field to create awareness on IFM activities among the wider community.
Field Day
At the end of the IFM FFS, with guidance from FF and Upazila team, the participants
organize a field day to share their new knowledge with the neighboring farmers. Six ‘learning
booths’ are prepared and FFS graduates present the FFS topics to the visitors giving an
opportunity to share technologies and ideas as well as to reinforce the topics learnt. The
learning booths include an Integrated Farm Management booth, an integrated rice cultivation
booth, a poultry rearing booth, goat and cattle rearing booth, Homestead garden and Nutrition
booth and a Farmer organization and aquaculture booth. At least 160 farmers are expected to
attend in the field day including the FFS farmer. For an FFS which includes rice module
there are 6 booths and 5 for FFS without rice module. At the end of touring the booths and
listening to presentations from the FFS farmers, the invited farmers join a discussion meeting
where visitors can share their questions and opinions on the displayed IFM technology. FFS
participants receive their certificate for FFS graduation and best scorer 3 participant get
prizes at the same occasion.
Facilitators
Each FFS is facilitated by a pair of trained facilitators, in most cases by Farmer Facilitators
(FFs) though in some cases field level officers of DAE i.e. Departmental Trainers (DTs). DTs
get training through Season-Long Training of Trainers (SL-TOT) course prior to acting as a
facilitators. FFs, who are FFS graduates, receive a 26-day intensive TOT course.
Each pair of FFs run two FFS per season in their local area and during the FFS
implementation period they also get training (Season Long Learning) 2 times on effective
implementation of FFS and the duration of the training is normally 3 days. The FFs also get
backstopping support from the trained Upazila team (Agriculture Extension Officer, Sub-
Assistant Plant Protection Officer and Sub-Assistant Agriculture officer (SAAO)) and also
from component officers based at the regional offices and Head quarter of the component.
IFM FFS organization
An IFM- FFS is implemented mainly through a crop life cycle, starting with seed sowing and
ending with the harvesting of the crop. Normally there are two sessions per week, lasting two
to three hours depending on topics to be covered. The Upazila Agriculture Officer (UAO) is
responsible for the implementation of FFS in his/her upazila. The UAO, Livestock officer
and Fisheries Officer and also the concerned DAE officers of the district are responsible for
monitoring the FFS for its quality. Each FFS maintains a register of activities in the FFS
which also as a record and as a monitoring tool. For each FFS a Sub-assistant agriculture
officer (SAAO) is attached and has responsibility for backstopping.
22
IFMC organizes half yearly review and planning workshops. These workshops are held at the
end of each FFS cycle, and over a period of two days, FFS progress is reviewed and planning
of FFS for the next season is carried out. The DTs/FFs who have implemented FFS are called
for the workshop and are given the opportunity to discuss any problems encountered during
implementation of FFS. Short training sessions are also included to address new issues and
review some important topics to improve the training quality of FFS. To improve the skill of
FFs as facilitators of FFS, IFMC organizes occasional refreshers courses for 6 days.
Development of Farmer Facilitators
Farmer Facilitators (FFs) are the main implementers of FFS in IFMC. They are selected
among the farmers of previously participated FFS following certain criteria for selection. The
main criteria are those have shown interest and potential during their participation in the FFS
and who have organising capability in the community. However, age, educational level and
knowledge of FFS promoted technologies are also considered during final selection of
farmers. IFMC encourages selecting more female farmers to train as Farmer Facilitators.
Selection is done by component staff in close collaboration with Upazila staff and includes
individual interviews.
Photo: Practical session of FF ToT
Training of Trainers
The finally selected farmers receive 26- days’ residential Training of Trainers (TOT) course
where facilitators from IFMC act as course facilitators. The TOT curriculum follows the FFS
curriculum combining practical and few theoretical sessions with emphasis on the
23
development of facilitation skills. After successful completion of FF-TOT course the FFs
begin implementation of IFM FFS in their localities under the supervision of the Upazila
Agriculture Officer and backstopping support from IFMC. Under backstopping support the
concerned officers visit the FFS at least three times during the FFS cycle to provide hands-on
training after assessment of their performance in implementation of FFS. New FFS attend a
number of short SLL courses during the first year to reinforce learning from the TOT.
Season long learning (SLL)
After receiving FF ToT FFs start to implement IFM FFS in current season. During 1st season
FFS implementation these FFs come again 2 times (3days+3 days) for season long learning
(SLL). During SLL FFs got an opportunity to present their feedback on completed sessions
and receive facilitator’s feedback on identified weak areas. They also receive an overview of
how to conduct the remaining sessions of that season.
Mentoring and follow up
The FFs do not have the depth of knowledge as of the departmental trainers but they have the
advantage that they are always easily available to the farmers in their community. To build
the capacity of the FFs, IFMC arranges backstopping support as well as periodic refresher
courses to improve their knowledge and facilitation skills. FFs also attend review and
planning workshops twice a year and during these workshops they have the opportunity to
interact and learn from their fellow FFs, ask questions and seek advice from Master
Facilitators on FFS topics.
Photo: Practical session of DT-ToT
24
Through the whole process of development, the FFs become valuable resource persons in
their communities on agricultural related aspects. Most are involved in advising their
community farmers on farm management technologies. In many cases FF develops strong
linkages with the Upazila level officers of the department of Agriculture, Livestock and
Fisheries and also other service providers, thus linking their community to a variety of
services.
Capacity building in Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE)
An important activity of IFMC is the development of facilitators from DAE for mentoring of
FFs and for the implementation, monitoring and backstopping of IFM FFS. To address this
need IFMC has designed a season long (seed to seed) Training of Trainers (SL-TOT) course
for Upazila level DAE officers (AEO, SAPPO and SAAO) following the principle of an FFS.
Season-long Training of Trainers
The curriculum of SL- TOT has been designed to develop all the qualities of a good FFS
facilitator. The 84 day course is divided into 7 spells with a break of 2 weeks between spells
allowing participants to see all stages of growth of a rice crop and other activities of other
modules.
The 50 participants of a typical SL-TOT are divided into two groups for effective training
purposes. It is a residential training where minimum of six highly qualified Master
Facilitators are assigned as the facilitator of the course. The curriculum of SL-TOT has been
developed in such a way that the participants can spend 60% time in the field and 40% in the
class room. The class room training is developed to be participatory and engage the
participants fully, avoiding lecturing and encouraging experience sharing. Participants visit
and observe FFS in the vicinity of the training centre and practice acting as facilitators. In the
curriculum of the course there is provision for evaluation of the participants at various stages
and the evaluation system includes not only technical matters but also practical and
facilitation skills. Only the successful participants are given certificates of completion of
course and can act as facilitator of an FFS.
In the SL-TOT, the participants get thorough field oriented, participatory and discovery based
training on the entire process of running an FFS effectively which include facilitation skills,
field observation techniques, discussion process, analyzing data and how to make decisions
for themselves based on observation/data. Besides, the participants get training on
backstopping and monitoring the FFS.
The curriculum also includes a study trip (2-3 days) for the participants to see the ongoing
FFS of IFMC in the field, and visit farmers’ organisations. This gives participants an
opportunity to understand IFMC’s programme more fully and to encourage them for future
engagement in these activities. Therefore, the SL-TOT course is not only for the development
of facilitators for FFS but also it is considered as a part of human recourses development and
capacity building of DAE’s field level officers more widely.
25
Output 2 - Support to Farmer Organizations
IFMC supports Farmers organizations (FOs) to increase farmers’ income through improved
access to markets and services, and a deeper understanding of agricultural markets. IFMC
works to improve efficiency of the FOs so they can serve as collection points and collective
marketing units through which farmers can bulk and sell their produce in larger volumes and
at better prices. To facilitate this development IFMC has developed an activity package,
which provides FO members and focal persons with marketing skills, business planning skills,
ability to organize producers and collection points, doing proper book keeping and ensuring
good FO governance and gender balance.
Target FOs and selection process
IFMC selects one in each target upazilla through an assessment of existing farmers’
organizations and two FOs from among newly completed IFM FFS groups.
The organizational landscape of rural Bangladesh is such that most existing farmer
organizations are small village groups formed as channels for service provision for
government projects or NGOs. While a number of FOs collect monthly fees from members
and accumulate savings, the majority of groups focus on social activities and rarely venture
into business. Among groups made up of the poorer social segment of the rural population
IFMC’s target group can be found, and among these existing groups IFMC selects one FO
per Upazila.
IFMC selects primarily among IPM or ICM club, which are groups formed in earlier phases
of the project. IPM and ICM groups are made up of the smallest land holding households in
the villages, marginal and small scale farmers, but landless households are not represented.
The IPM project focused on rice and the ICM project on integrated crop production.
The existing FOs are selected according to interest, bylaws, females in executive committees,
regular meetings, book keeping, savings, business experience, surplus production and
potential commodities.
The two newly completed IFM FFS groups are selected among the nearby FFS groups in the
Upazila. Same selection criteria are applied. However, the criterion on having savings
accumulated is removed as it is not relevant to the new groups. DAE Upazila Officials help
the FFS group to constitute, make bylaws, elect an executive committee and open a bank
account. Groups of landless households can be found among the IFM FFS groups, and mixed
groups of landless, marginal and small.
Selecting Business Focal Persons (BFPs)
In the MLT model the main FO personnel to work with are the Business Focal Persons
(BFPs). The BFPs’ role is twofold. They are supposed to facilitate FO-level training in the
village and organize and to manage collective marketing.
26
Eight potential BFPs (4M/4F) are selected by the FO leaders and ordinary FO members in
collaboration with DAE and IFMC. The main criteria for becoming a BFP are: available time,
interest, business experience, facilitation skills, education, commitment to project activities,
dedication to facilitate FO-level sessions and to engage in FO business and collective
marketing, possibly as commission agents.
The eight shortlisted candidates are invited for a test and interview at the DAE Upazila Office
and finally two male BFPs and two female BFPs are selected. It turns out that around 25% of
the BFPs also hold leadership positions in the FO as members of the Executive Committee.
75% are not involved in FO leadership. In general, BFPs have an average lower age than if
FO-leaders, who are many times male elders.
The gender quota has been imposed because ordinary selection generates very few female
candidates. Field staff reports that there is a lack of qualified and interested females, but after
introducing gender quota each FO is able to select the required number of females. An
implication of the gender quota was that the number of BFPs per FO was raised from two to
four. Having two females from each FO makes female candidates more confident because
they can travel, sleep and study together. It also gives room for lowering the selection criteria
without compromising project results and for accepting if some BFPs decline.
Training of BFPs
Before starting activities at FO-level BFPs receive a 10-day residential training on farming-
as-a-business, agriculture marketing, business planning, value addition, food safety, gender,
good FO governance, civic rights and facilitation skills. BFPs are tasked, upon their return to
the village, to conduct one dissemination meeting with the FO. In this meeting some BFPs
suggest reforming the Executive Committee to make it more gender balanced. BFPs do also
start registering producer groups so they have a tentative idea of the potential commodities
and volumes when the FO-level activities start. See training information sheet in annex 2.
Developing the capacity of DAE Officials
Immediately after training BFPs DAE Officials from same Upazila and districts are trained.
The DAE officials are divided into three groups and three different trainings:
Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officers (SAAOs) and Sub-Assistant Plant Protection Officers
(SAPPOs) are the frontline extension workers with direct contact to FOs and supervisory
responsibilities. SAAOs and SAPPOs are a relatively homogenous group of diploma
graduates and it is possible to tailor the training content to match their requirements. They
receive five-days residential training on the IFMC FO approach and process, agriculture
marketing, collective marketing, business planning, gender and good FO governance;
Upazila Agriculture Officers (UAOs) and Agriculture Extension Officers (AEOs) are
involved in IFMC FO implementation at more strategic level. They do not participate in all
FO visits and sessions but supervise at Upazila level. The training content is tailored to their
educational level, expected role in FO activities and general work load. They receive a three
day residential training on the IFMC FO approach and process, agriculture marketing,
collective marketing, business planning, gender and good FO governance;
27
DAE District Officers, mainly the District Directors (DDs) and District Training Officer
(DTOs) are trained and receive a one day orientation on the IFMC FO approach so they can
support implementation and ensure commitment of Upazila level officials.
Inaugural workshop
Before starting the FO-level training sessions the UAO calls an inaugural workshop at DAE
Upazila Office. The objectives of this workshop are to: 1) orient and get acquainted to each
other, 2) make the first market linkages, and 3) sign a MoU between DAE and the FO.
The participants in the workshop are the BFPs, FO-leaders, supplementary female FO-
members, input traders, arodthers (output traders), bank representatives and officials from
DAE, Livestock, Fisheries, Women Affairs, Social Welfare and District Marketing.
Market Linkage Activity package at FO-level
The FO-level Market Linkage Training has eight sessions, each of approximately 3 hours.
They are conducted once or twice a week depending on timing with the upcoming harvest.
The training content is the same as in the BFP training but at a less technical level. The
sessions are meant to get FO-members’ buy-in to collective marketing, and to orient them on
farming-as-a-business, agriculture marketing, cyclical trends, risks, different business models,
value addition, food safety and gender. The training also provides tools for FO-members to
exercise their civic rights in the FO and to hold their leaders accountable. The training is
participatory and has many role plays, discussions, brainstorming, trials and group exercises.
The first session includes a linkage meeting with output traders and the FO’s business model
and business plan are made in session 7. Upon completing the eight sessions there is a market
linkage visit to a nearby market or to a producer, an Arodther or another FO. There is also a
follow-up linkage workshop convened by the DAE Upazila Office.
Collective marketing starts at FO level
After having completed the FO-level training sessions the FO is encouraged to start collective
marketing and to search for traders that can offer better prices when buying bulk. FOs are
encouraged to have a commodity calendar so they can shift between different commodity
businesses in the different seasons and off-seasons. Other producers in the village, i.e. non-
FO-members, are encouraged to sign up to the producer groups and use the collective
marketing system. In this way the FO can generate large volumes.
Mentoring and follow-up visits
There will be mentoring and follow-up visits by IFMC staff, DAE, Livestock and Fishery
departments. There will be at least five visits per FO and they will be planned and conducted
according to individual needs of the FO. The visits are meant to support the FO in its business
planning, business management, market linkages, good governance, gender balance etc. At
these visits IFMC staff and DAE also assess the training needs. Identified training needs
should be related to the FO’s capacity to perform its business.
28
Need-based trainings
Need-based trainings will be organized based on the information gathered through the
mentoring and follow-up visit. Subjects can be: bookkeeping, good governance, value
addition of selected crop/commodity, processing, packaging, food safety, cleanliness, storage,
preservation techniques, production matters and any other subject related to the selected
businesses of the FO. Need-based training can be conducted by DEA, Livestock and Fishery
Officers at FO, Upazila or district level. It can also be organized centrally as residential
trainings. It depends on identified needs and number of interested FOs.
MLT Model Process illustration
1. Selection of Farmer Organizations (FOs) According to criteria and procedure
2. Developing Business Focal Persons (BFPs) According to criteria and procedure
3. Market Linkage Training (MLT) for BFPs Farming as a business, business planning, collective marketing, gender
and marketing, transparency and good governance & adult learning
4. Market Linkage Training (MLT) for DAE Officials DAE officials are trained immediately after BFPs and on same subjects.
5. Inaugural Workshop at DAE Upazila Offices Orientation, acquaintance, cross-departmental, input and output traders
present for linkages, MoU between DAE and FO.
6. Market Linkage Activity Package at FO-Level Eight sessions in the village, meeting with output traders, follow-up
linkage workshop at DAE office and market linkage tour..
7. Mentoring and Follow-up Visits At least five visits per FO to support ongoing business, new business
analysis, market analysis, market linkage and training needs.
8. Need-based Marketing Trainings Related to the specific FO businesses, Possible subjects: value addition,
post harvest management, preservation, storage, book keeping etc.
29
7. Progress towards objectives
Introduction
According to the monitoring plan of IFMC, as described in the IFMC M&E manual, in-house
monitoring of component output and outcome indicators has commenced. In 2015-16 an
external mid-term survey will be carried out to measure detailed outcome and impact,
however initial results of in-house outcome monitoring are available and reported below.
Impact assessment:
Impact of IFMC activities is to be measured against baseline situation and against non-
intervention households. At the time of reporting no major impact assessment has been made,
however a baseline survey was carried out prior to the start of IFMC. It is still premature to
measure the project progress towards objectives and the first major impact assessment will be
made in 2016.
Outcome monitoring:
With reference to the M&E Manual IFMC has developed a result monitoring systems to
assess outcomes of the project compared to the Logical Framework. Result monitoring will
aim at establishing the success of IFMC in diffusing knowledge and technologies to the target
group as well as how this knowledge contributes to improved livelihoods of participating
farmers.
Output 1 Progress towards Objectives
Objective of outcome monitoring by IFMC M&E Unit:
- To assess the knowledge and understanding as well as the adoption level of IFM FFS
technology by the participating farmers,
- To assess the increase in number of total farm activities by farmers after participating
in IFM FFS
- To make initial assessment of progress of IFMC activities against Log Frame outcome
indicators such as ‘control over income from homestead vegetables, fruits, poultry
and fish production by the female members of the HH.’
Sample Selection:
Random sampling has been used in selecting FFS and FFS members in this assessment. A
total of 64 FFS (5%) were selected for focal group discussions (FGD) and 320 farmers (20%
of each selected FFS) were selected for individual interview from 1,389 FFS established
during Kharif-2 2014.
Tools and methods:
For data collection both PRA and face to face interview were used. A predesigned format was
used to record data. The format was pretested before being used for data collection in the
field. For data entry and analysis MS Access Software has been used.
30
Findings:
Knowledge and adoption of IFM FFS curriculum:
The table below shows that based on an assessment of group members knowledge during
FGD, on average 49% of farmers have good knowledge on the 9 different modules of IFM
FFS curriculum, while 39% have moderate knowledge and 12% have poor knowledge.
Table 2. Knowledge level of participating farmers in IFM FFS
FFS Module Knowledge Level (% of Farmers)
Poor Moderate Good
IFM 12 35 53
Rice Cultivation 11 39 50
Homestead Gardening –Veg. 17 36 47
Homestead Gardening -Fruit 9 48 43
Poultry Rearing 11 39 50
Goat Rearing 5 41 54
Milking Cow Rearing 17 36 47
Beef Fattening 13 37 50
Pond Fish Culture 10 39 51
Average 12 39 49
Practice or adoption of knowledge by the FFS trained farmers in their own farms are shown
in the table below. Data shows that in most of the areas practice rate is more than 80% with
the exception of fish culture and large ruminant where adoption rate is somewhat lower than
the other farm activities. Field observation indicates that low cost or no-cost interventions are
more easily adopted.
Table 3. Practice of knowledge gain from IFM FFS
Name of Module Nos. of farmers
received training
Practice in their own
farm
HH HH %
Rice Cultivation 165 165 100
Homestead Gardening (Veg.) 295 269 91
Homestead Gardening (Fruit) 296 280 95
Poultry Rearing 289 251 87
Cow/Buffalos Rearing 255 180 71
Goat Rearing 78 69 88
Fish Culture 224 153 68
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Increase number of farm activities:
Regarding the total number of farm activities it is the target to have 80% of FFS trained
households increase their number of total farm activities. At baseline 3.8% farms households
had more than 5 farm activities. For the assessment carried out during the reporting period
IFM FFS participating farmers has increased to 51% with 5 farm activities indicating a
considerable interest in diversifying farm activities by FFS participants. It is expected that
new activities will further increase with time and the project target of 80% of households
increasing farm activities will be easily achieved, especially with follow up from DAE.
Adoption of IFM FFS technologies:
There are 25 technologies, including integration among farm enterprises that have been
promoted through IFM FFS to increase sustainable agricultural production. Baseline data
shows that only 15.8% HH were using at least 5 of these technologies. Present data shows
that 96% of IFM FFS farmers adopted at least 5 technologies out of which 79% HH adopted
more than 10 technologies.
Photo: Trial plot of homestead vegetable gardening to harvest year round vegetable.
The least adopted technologies are vaccination, de-worming and balanced feed for goat and
cattle, maintaining proper density and species of fish fingerling stocking. These are mainly
due to unavailability of input and technical persons within the community.
32
Control over income by the female members of the HH:
One of the most important indicators of women empowerment is control over income. Data
shows that the situation of the IFM FFS members in case of control over income has changed
remarkably. The main area of change is in the income from poultry rearing and homestead
gardening.
Table 4. Control over income by the female members of the HH
Members % of control over by income Sources
Poultry
Rearing
Homestead
Gardening
Field Crops Fish
Culture
By female members
(baseline)
38 3 0 0
By female members
(Present)
77 52 6 14
Jointly (present) 14 28 21 14
By male members
(present)
9 19 73 72
Output 2 – Progress towards Objectives
While the M&E team have focused on initiating monitoring against objectives for output 1
the FO team have carried out observations and in-house monitoring towards objectives for
their activities. The progress and observations are reported below:
Specific objective 2 has three indicators for empowerment in the areas of rights, gender and
economy (outcome level). As an outcome of the activities the project expects to see farmers
(M/F) confidently speaking in public, women in Executive Committees and FOs linked to
better-priced markets, MFIs and service providers.
Farmers, males and females, comfortably speaking in public
Learning to ‘speak in public’ is an embedded part of the 10-day BFP residential training and
all the FO-level sessions and activities. Facilitators are trained to observe participants’ level
of participation and ensure that everybody gets a chance to present and comment. Quiet
persons are encouraged to speak, and talkative participants are incited to make room for new
speakers’ contributions. Especially, facilitators are trained to encourage women to speak and
women are placed in front of the training room, which makes it easier for them to dare
speaking up.
All trainings have ‘day leaders’ who do a recap, and manage role plays, exercises, facilitators
and guests. They participate in the session planning meetings and preparation of papers for
the next day’s training. This builds their skills and confidence. In the BFP training it has been
decided to let only female participants be day leaders, because they are modest and many
times fear taking the floor.
33
The first BFP training conducted in June showed that the equal mix of male and female BFPs,
with two males and two females from each FO, gave a very lively group and a very good
level of participation from everybody, also females. It has been observed that many of these
female BFP after receiving the training are confidently speaking in their FOs. Some are even
very confident. Others are extraordinarily nervous, but nevertheless they stand up and speak.
The BFP-training includes several visits to national, regional and local whole sale agricultural
markets where participants get a chance to speak to traders. For all female participants so far
it has been their first visits ever to these kinds of markets, and the meetings with traders have
greatly increased their confidence in speaking and negotiating. For all farmers, males and
females, it has been a positive experience to visit the markets because they have been
received with interest and respect by the traders, who see them as potential suppliers.
FOs have females in Executive Committees as Chairman, Cashier or Secretary
Most FOs have male dominated Executive Committees. If there are female members in the
Executive Committees they are normally ‘ordinary Executive Committee members’ with no
specific designations or responsibilities. This situation is challenged by the DAE and IFMC,
staff when they assess and start working with an FO or it is challenged by newly trained
BFPs. FOs are encouraged to elect women to their executive committees and to give them
responsibilities by having them as chairmen, cashiers or secretaries.
It is well known that even if females are elected to leadership positions there are ways to
exclude them from decision-making and limit their knowledge and influence. This might be
done by not sharing information with them or by electing a wife as a substitute for her
husband, who then influence through her, or simply run the meetings on her behalf because
‘he is better educated’. It is obvious that some of these things will happen in the FOs that
IFMC works with, because they are common in Bangladesh and because some of the FOs
shows resistance towards reforming their Executive Committees and make them more gender
balanced. For this reason the IFMC FO field staff works with the FOs to increase the newly
elected female Executive Committee members’ influence.
The current allocation of female positions in the 33 FBS FOs can be seen in the table below.
Up against a baseline of almost none female members in the positions as chairmen, cashier
and secretary almost 80% of the 33 FOs have now a female in either of these positions. It
should be added that some FOs have been selected because they had an initial good gender
balance together with fulfilling the other criteria. The target for this indicator is 90% and it
seems very likely that it can be reached with further efforts with current and future partner
FOs. It should be added to the figures in the table that most of the FOs now have several
women in their Executive Committees. The table counts FOs, not total number of female
Executive Committee members.
Table 5. FOs with female in Executive Committee
Chairman Secretary Cashier Other
(s)elected
positions
Ordinary
EC
members
only
None
at all
Total
# of FOs 4 11 11 3 2 2 33
# of FOs 26 3 2 2 33
% 79 9 6 6 100
34
FOs developed capacity to link with service providers, market actors and micro-finance
services
The target of this indicator, which is set at 90%, seems so far to be reached because most of
the FOs have linked up to new markets. However, this is based on a small sample of FOs and
the timeline to short for any measure of sustainability in terms of links. Through market
linkage training and Upazila workshops FOs are linked not only to markets but to DAE and
the Departments of Livestock, Fisheries, Women Affairs and Social Welfare, and the process
greatly develops FOs capacities to access services in this area.
Progress towards Development Objective (Impact)
The impact of the IFMC project is expected to be increased income, increased nutritional
status, and employment creation. The activities under output 2 are leading to two of these, i.e.
increased income and employment.
At this point, of course, it is too early to measure any impact of the project activities.
However, to assess whether or not the FO Team works in the right direction it is useful to
look at the increase in producers’ income and the type and size of employment created by the
collective marketing systems.
Preliminary calculations on some of the FO businesses show that the little increase in prices
that farmers experience through the new FO collective marketing systems actually can lead to
a significant increase in their income, whether counted as individual income or household
income. Especially, for the poorest third of the farm households that have an income of less
than 5.000 Taka/months (Baseline 2013).
Most of the collective marketing also creates employment opportunities. Most of the
employment is seasonal part-time jobs, where people are employed as day laborers to sort,
grade, clean or package the commodities. The collectors and business organizers get an
opportunity of having commission based employment on a periodic or year-round basis.
Photo: Egg bulking and business at Lalitnagor IPM Club in Damrai
35
Progress Monitoring by GoB:
In addition to the internal monitoring system, there are two monitoring team represented by
DAE, MoA, Planning Commission, IMED and EoD. One is Joint Monitoring team and
another one is Special Monitoring team.
Joint Monitoring
The responsibilities of Joint monitoring team are to oversee the process of implementation of
IFMC with special attention to the targets and achievements in respect of the Development
Project Proposal.
Joint monitoring team visited the project site and reviews the related documents during April
24-26, 2015. The observation and recommendation of the team are as follows;
Observations Recommendations
- Team has observed the activities of IFM
FFS sessions at Boraigram upazila of
Natore district. Session conduction by
the FF and trial Project has established
about 24% FFS over the last 2 years.
- Team has observed the activities of
Farmers Business School (FBS) at
Gurudaspur, Natore. The project has
just started the FO activities as pilot
basis.
- Team observed the Season Long
Training of Departmental Trainer (DT)
is very good practical training and team
suggested to increase the batches.
- Special attention should be given to
establish 20,000 FFS over the project
period. Emphasis should be given to
quality issues of IFM FFS as FFS is the
main activities of IFMC
- Season long training and other training
courses should arranged with residential
facilities.
- Special training should arrange for the
improvement of FFs facilitation skill and
technical skill
- Project may give more attention to form
Farmers Organization (FO), arrange
training for capacity building, business
planning, market linkage etc.
- Increase support for IFM FFS trials to
improve the quality.
36
Special Monitoring
The responsibilities of special monitoring team are to oversee the process of implementation
of IFMC with special attention to the targets and achievements in respect to Annual Work
Plan.
Special monitoring team visited the project site and reviews the related documents during
June 4-6, 2015. The observation and recommendation of the team are as follows;
Observations Recommendations
- Team has observed the activities of
Farmers Field School in Dhamrai upazila,
during the visit were found satisfactory.
- Participants of Farmers Business School
(FBS) as well as reponse to active work
together within group of farmers were
dealt in good shape. There is a fear in line
with the sustainability of FBS may arise in
future after the end of the project.
- Team observed that season long training
and technical support is more required in
the field than existing training & support
by the project IFMC.
- Activities to form FBS and FFS are going
well. Team has seen that some members
of FBS and FFS are not able to perform
their agriculture or related business due to
lack of fund. The project may give
training to the farmers about how to lend
fund from micro finance organizations.
Team admits that it may be missing such
activities right now in the project.
- Season based training and technical
support to the farmers is required to be
supported by the local experts of DAE,
DLS and DOF officials. Besides, various
training should be given to the farmers by
various relevant experts.
- Project authority may put more
concentration to motivate group members
association to work together for their own
benefits.
- This is advisable that farmer’s may get
proper training on marketing their
commodities and get market chain/linkage
to make liaison with smaller, bigger and
established market in the rural, semi-urban
and urban areas.
- Team opined that farmers who are not
able to perform their agriculture activities
due to lack of fund, project may consider
to provide training to the farmers how to
lend fund from NGO/micro finance
organizations.
37
Progress against Log Frame as of June 30, 2015
Narrative
Summary
Target by year 5
(short version, see
DPP for full version)
2014-15 Project to
date
Comment Applied
Means of
Verification
Develop-
ment
Objective
DO1: Increased
income
DO2: Increased
nutrition
DO3: Employment
created
Higher impact
level. Too
early to
measure.
Immediate
Objective
IO: Increased yields
of rice, vegetables,
high value crops
Lower impact
level. Too
early to
measure.
Specific
Objective 1
(Outcome)
1: 50% point higher
female control over
income
2: 80% of HH
increased number of
total farm activities
(MHH/FHH)
3: 80% (M/F) have
adopted at least 5
technologies
-
- 51%
- 79%
-
- 51%
- 79%
In case control
over income
by FFS female
farmers 77%
on poultry
income &
52%
homestead
gardening
M&E Team
survey of
320
individual
farmers
from 2nd
season of
FFS in
2014-15
Output 1.1 - 10 modules of
curricula developed
- 50% of modules
have high female
interest/demand
- 7
- 85%
- decision
about
developing 7
only
- 6 out of 7
have female
demand
Internal
monitoring
reports
Output 1.2 - 1000 FFs developed
(M/F)
- 300 new & 1100 old
DT trained
- 1500 GOB staff
trained
- 95% satisfactory
grade
- 406 (F
28%)
- 100 new
& 180 old
-
-
-
-
-
-
Internal
monitoring
reports
Output 1.3 - 20,000 FFS carried
out
- 1,000,000 FFS
participants trained
(min 50% F)
- 10% of FFS
participants from
female headed HH
- 3,317
- 165,155
(F 53%)
-
- 4,686
- 232,505
(F )
-
Internal
monitoring
reports
38
Narrative
Summary
Target by year 5
(short version, see
DPP for full version)
2014-15 Project to
date
Comment Applied
Means of
Verification
Specific
Objective 2
(Outcome)
1: 80% of farmers
(M/F) comfy
speaking in public
2: 90% of FOs with
one female as chair
person, cashier or
secretary
3: 90% of FOs with
capacity to link to
markets, MFIs,
service providers
-
- 79%
- 80%
-
- 79%
- 80%
-
- sample of 33
FOs
- Expected to
rise within
sample, due to
season
Baseline
and internal
monitoring
reports
Output 2.1 - 3 curricula
developed
- 4 - 5 - draft
versions
Internal
M&E
Output 2.2 - 3500 DAE Officials
trained
- 95% satisfactory
grade
- 92 (8%)
-
- 125 (F
6%)
-
Internal
M&E
Output 2.3 - 1062 Fos
established
- 5310 leaders/BFP
trained
- 90% FOs with biz-
plan
- 50% FOs linked to
MFIs
- 80% FOs linked to
market
- 33
- 44 (F
48%)
- 100%
- 0%
- 80%
- 44
- 66 (F
38%)
- 100%
- 0%
- 80%
- All were
existing
-
-
-
- small
sample
Internal
monitoring
reports
Specific
Objective 3
(Outcome)
SP 3.1 National
Platform: 80% of
projects follow
farmer-centered
extension approaches
Too early to
measure.
Internal
monitoring
reports
Output 3.1 - Develop ToR
- GOB and NGO
officials participate
- Relevant
stakeholder reps
(M/F) participate
ToR Drafted
4 Meetings
held
Internal
monitoring
reports
Output 3.2 - 20 meetings (2 per
year)
- 20 joint field visits
Minutes,
internal
M&E
Output 3.3
- 20 meetings (4 per
year)
- 10 joint visits
Minutes,
internal
M&E
39
8. Achievement of Outputs
Output 1 – Farmers’ Field Schools
Output 1.1 Development of curriculum and training materials
The development of the curriculum for IFM FFS as well as training curricula for Training of
Trainers and monitoring officers - farmer facilitators and DAE officers respectively were
carried out in the initial stage of IFMC as they are required for the start up of activities.
Various training materials to support the IFM FFS have also been developed and are
regularly upgraded as a part of normal project implementation.
Curriculum for Farmer Facilitators Training-of-Trainers and Season-Long Training-
of-Trainers for DAE officers
There have been only minor changes in TOT curriculum during the reporting period. The 26-
day FF-TOT curriculum was developed involving the major stakeholders, mainly the DAE
personnel and the Master Facilitators of AEC, including 9 modules with emphasis on
facilitation skills and conducting simple trials and studies involving FFS participants. The
SL-TOT for the departmental trainers has been finalized the first half of the reporting year
2014-2015. The curriculum for DT-TOT is 84 days covering all the activities of 9 modules of
an IFM-FFS. Emphasis has been given on the development of facilitation skill and to the role
of DAE officers as mentors to the FFs and their role in backstopping and monitoring the
implementation of IFM FFS.
Curriculum for IFM FFS
The IFM FFS curriculum lies at the core of IFMC activities and the development and piloting
of this curriculum was started during ASPS II. Annual reviews and adjustments are on-going
to make any necessary adjustments. During February 2015 the curriculum has been reviewed
and update based on lessons learning.
Curriculum for Farmer Facilitators Season Long Learning (SLL) Refresher courses:
In the development process of new farmer facilitators, IFMC has been follow several steps; a
26 day FF ToT for the selected facilitators after which the newly trained facilitators start to
implement a single FFS. During implementation of this first FFS the new FFS are twice
called for further trainings of three days each, i.e. total 6 days, called season long learning
(SLL). During SLL the new FFs have an opportunity to present and discuss their feedback on
completed sessions and receive further training and information on weak areas. They also
receive an overview of how to go about conducting the remaining sessions of the FFS for that
season. For this purpose a curriculum was develop in the first year of project implementation
which was further improved and updates during the current year based on feedback from the
field and FFS team.
Curriculum for Farmer Facilitators Refresher courses:
FFs attend refresher courses during which they are introduced to new issues included any
update in curriculum and implementation modalities of FFS. For this purpose a curriculum
was develop in the first year of project implementation and during the reporting period this
was updated based on feedback from FFS implementers.
40
Output 1.2 Capacity building of Farmer Facilitators and Field Level officers of
Department of Agriculture (DAE) to implement IFM-FFS
Output 1.2 focuses on the capacity building of Farmer Facilitators (FFs) and DAE officers
involved in the implementation and monitoring of IFM FFS activities and is an important part
of establishing and maintaining quality FFS implementation. The output included initial
training of facilitators as well as on-going refresher trainings throughout the period of the
project.
Table 6. Capacity building activities for IFM-FFS implementation under IFMC
Sl Name of
Training/Workshop
Duration
and
batches
Participants (‘14-‘15) Since inception to June
2015
Mal
e
Fem
ale
To
tal
Mal
e
Fem
ale
To
tal
01 ToT for Farmers
Facilitators on IFM FFS
26 days 8
batches
291 115
(28%)
406 508 181
(26%
689
02 Season Long Learning
(SLL) for FFs
6 days in
2 spell, 11
batches
187 51
(21%)
238 404 115
(22%
519
03 a. Refresher Training for
FFs Robi 2014-2015
2 days 1,245 276
(22%)
1,521 1,245 276
(18%
1521
b. Refresher Training for
FFs Kharif 2014-2015
2 days 1,391 369
(26%)
1760 2503 610
(20%
3113
04 Season-long ToT for
DAE officers on IFM
FFS
84 days in
six spell,
2 batches
71 29
(29%)
100 71 29
(29%
100
05 Departmental Trainers
Crash Course on IFM
FFS
5 days, 4
batches
155 25
(16%)
180 707 66
(9%)
773
06 Orientation workshop of
upzilla, district and
regional level officers of
DAE and other related
organization
1day, 16
batches
724 31
(4%0
755 1325 59
(4%)
1394
07 Orientation and training
for MFs and SMSs, and
other officials of IFMC
2day 31 1
(3%)
32 31 1
(3%)
32
41
Capacity building of Farmer Facilitators
FF TOT
During IFMC there is provision for the development of 1,000 new farmer facilitators to
implement IFM-FFS. These FFs will join 1,250 trained farmer’s who were responsible for
implementation of FFS under ASPS II attended an 18 days in two spell crash courses on IFM
focusing especially on the aspects of IFM which vary from the earlier ICM FFS and
introducing the module approach, including modules which were new to the facilitators and
adjusted to the groups of facilitators depending on their previous training and experience.
For the development of 1,000 new farmer facilitators selection of FFs has aimed to increase
the number of FFS in areas where there a relatively few FFs (less than 6 per upzilla), and an
important criteria in selection has been that the future FFs should have participated in an IFM
FFS, whether ICM or IPM. Also there was extra effort to identify suitable female candidates
as FFs to try to increase the total number of female FFs. During the reporting period the
component conducted 8 batches of FF-TOT courses for new FFs where 406 (male 291 and
female 115) farmers have successfully completed the course and graduated as Farmer
Facilitators.
42
During the reporting period Regional Offices were fully established and took responsibility
for FF TOTs under guidance from Headquarters. Where ever possible FFs were trained
within their own region, however this was not always possible as there was some historical
discrepancy in the number of FFs in the regions as the geographic focus of ASPS II was
somewhat different to IFMC.
Season long Learning (SLL):
According to work plan 2014-15 component organize 5 batches of SLL course in 2 spell. In
this course FF present their feedback on completed session and how to overcome areas of
weakness and also received remaining sessions overview of implementation. A total of 238
FFs receive SLL in which 51 were female. Again responsibility for organizing and
implementing SLL was with regional offices.
Refresher course for FF
During the reporting period the component also organized four day (two day during Robi
2014-2015 and 2 day Kharif 2014-2015) refresher course for all FFs, focusing on new issues
included the update version of curriculum and implementation modalities of FFS and area of
identified weakness. A total of 1,706 FFs participated in the refresher course of which 369
(22%) was female. Regional offices were responsible for organizing and implementing
refresher courses in their respective regions with support from headquarters.
43
Capacity building of DAE officers
Season long Training of Trainer (SL ToT) on IFM FFS
While there is substantial overlap between the activities of ASPS II and IFMC, there are a
number of IFMC upzilas which were not included in ASPS-II. In upazilas where ASPS II
worked there are trained officers and FFS, however in the new upazilas it is necessary to train
AEO, SAPPO, SAAO in IFM FFS through a season long ToT before commencing IFM FFS
implementation. In such Upazila the first IFM FFS is implemented by trained departmental
trainers and from these FFS future FFs are selected for training. The other purpose of SL
TOT is to ensure that quality backstopping and monitoring can be carried out by DAE
officers in all upazillas. For these purposes 2 batches of SL ToT have been completed in this
reporting year. A total of 100 officers receive ToT (AEO and SAPPO/SAAO batches)-in
which 29 were female. SL TOT is organized by IFMC Headquarters with support from IFMC
regional officers for facilitators. This is first time IFMC conducted the Season Long TOT
course on IFM; that is including a wider range of topics in the 9 modules and therefore
required much extra work and effort from the facilitators in developing the overall program
as well as daily training plans, new trails and demonstration techniques. Although the SLL
stretches over a long period it covers a large technical area and is very demanding on the
facilitators who stay at the training center for long periods.
The below is taken from the reports from two SL-TOT:
With a view to developing new DTs there is provision in the project document to organize
Season Long (SL) Training of Trainer (TOT) course. In 2014-15 financial year project
organized 02 batches SL TOT course. Each batch consists of 50 participants, one batch for
Agriculture Extension Officers and another for Sub-Assistant Plant Protection Officer
(SAPPO)/Sub Assistant Agriculture Officer (SAAO). Of the one hundred participants 29
were female. The courses were organized at Horticulture Centre, Kallyanpur, Chapai
Nawabganj from December 2014 to June 2015.
The participants came from 50 different Upazila of DAE. The training was organized by
GOB fund of IFMC. The course was conducted in Boro rice season, and all the nine modules
of IFM FFS (Preparatory, Rice, Homestead garden, Large Ruminant, Small Ruminant,
Poultry, Fish, Nutrition and Farmer Organization & Social issue) were included in the course.
Total 50 AEO participants participated and 47 completed the 84 days long TOT course in 7
spells. For the SAPPO/SAAO batch all 50 successfully completed the training.
The objective of the SL TOT is to build capacity of the participants as IFM facilitators. So,
after the successful completion of TOT course, it was expected that each participant will be
able to plan, design and implement the Farmers’ Field School (FFS) effectively in their
Upazila by ensuring skill monitoring and backstopping.
To ensure the quality training total participants were divided into two groups and each of
these groups divided again into 4 small groups. To ensure the quality learning one facilitator
44
was always tagged with each group to help them in learning process. Usually the assigned
(tagged) group facilitator changes in every spell which creates the chance for the participants
to share new ideas, views and techniques.
The IFM SL-TOT curriculum was newly developed and adjusted throughout the TOT and
included all the topics of IFM FFS that is rice, homestead garden, large ruminant, small
ruminant, fish culture, poultry, nutrition and Farmers Organization. It is also included
different important topics to develop them as a good facilitator. A number of trials and study
plots are establish in the TOT field to ensure the quality of TOT course. The objective of the
trials and study plots is to build confidence of the participants on different technologies and
how to deal with the issues in their localities. Eventually they learnt how to establish these
trials in the FFS. To ensure the better learning environment for the participants, total 14 trails
and 2 study plots were established in the IFM SL TOT venue. Every trials and study plots
was established by the participants themselves and observed regularly to see the results of the
trials. To improve the facilitation skill of the participants 4 practice FFS were established for
the participants where they got the opportunity to conduct the FFS session.
After completion of the trials every small group was assigned to write a report on the trials
and one group were asked to write report on practice FFS, which were submitted.
Participants of TOT course were evaluated thoroughly through academic and extra academic
assessments. In the academic part there were series of written examinations, including
examinations at the end of each spell, mid-term and final examination. In the extra-academic,
participants were evaluated by their assigned facilitators in every spell of the training.
Assigned facilitator evaluated their field works, different group works, facilitation skill,
behavior and attitude. Participants were also evaluated on their different assignments, report
writing and presentation skills. In the AEO course the top three achievers were all female and
in SAPPO/SAAO batch the top achiever was female.
Crash course for DAE officer
Upazila level officers of DAE have the role of providing backstopping support to the IFMC
FFs. To be able to carry out this task effectively field level officers require training of IFM
FFS which includes a number of new modules. A total of 594 field level officers (AAO/AEO,
SAPPO, SAAO) of DAE were given 5 days intensive course on monitoring and backstopping
of IFM-FFS so that they can provide backstopping support to the FFs implementing FFS in
their Upazila and also monitor the FFSs. Crash courses for DTS were organized by IFMC
headquarters with support from regions.
Orientation workshop of Upazila, district and regional level officers of DAE and other
related organization
To ensure the quality of FFS, the Upazila Agriculture Officers (UAO), Livestock Officers
(ULO), Fisheries Officers (UFO) and district level DAE Officers will monitor the FFS
45
periodically. For this purpose 639 officers of all the 373 Upazilas and 61 districts were given
a one day orientation in batches on IFMC and IFM-FFS. These workshops are organized by
regional offices for the DAE officers within their regions.
Other activities under output 1.2
Orientation and training of Master Facilitators (MFs), Subject Matter Specialists
(SMSs)
For giving necessary training and orientation on IFM-FFS based on the curriculum MFs,
SMSs and other related officers of IFMC, an orientation course on February 2015 was
organize by FFS team of component just after recruitment of all MF and SMS. This course
contains technical issues of the various modules, facilitation skill, monitoring and
backstopping of the IFM FFS and gender. Twelve MF, six SMS, six RTC and six RIC all
participated and contributed to the training. There have been a number of short, no cost
information meetings and trainings at headquarters and there is ongoing backstopping by
headquarters staff as well as exchange of idea and experience between the more experienced
officers and those who are relatively new to the concepts of IFM and FFS.
Study tours of Farmer, IFMC staff and relevant GOB officers
A total of 24 participants took part in international study tours under IFMC during the
reporting period. Of this group eight were FFs (five male and three female), and 16 were GoB
officers including seven IFMC. The participants were divided into three groups each of which
visited two countries (Indonesia and Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia and, Sri Lanka and
Indonesia). The main activities during the tours were visits to Farmer Field Schools and
related activities, small scale farmer cooperatives, collective marketing, vegetable processing,
value addition and marketing chain/channels.
The participants, especially Farmer Facilitators learnt about small scale processing, value
addition, market chain/channels (producer to farmer cooperatives/collection point to super
shop, supermarket, hotels, local markets etc.) After returning from the study tour FFs are very
much encouraged to practice their learning at their own locality or farmer organization
according to their capacity.
Support for Physical Renovation of the Training Centers
The vast majority of training courses under output-1 have been implemented at the DAE
Horticulture Training Centers as planned. The six centers are Kallyanpur, Chapai Nawabganj;
Burirhat, Rangpur; Jamalpur; Daulatpur, Khulna; Rahmatpur, Barisal and Panchgasiya, Feni,
each one falling under one of the six IFMC regional offices.
The component has a provision to upgrade the necessary training facilities for the training of
50 male and female farmers and facilitators, including their accommodation. The primary
renovations to ensure all regions have capacity to training at least 50 trainees at one time,
including two training rooms, dining facilities and suitable facilities for female and male
46
trainees have been successfully carried out. The number of female trainees is expected to
grow gradually throughout the life of the project and any arising issues in terms of facilities
will be met.
Horticulture Centre Major renovation work carried out
Rangpur renovation work in dormitory, supply of quilt and electricity
materials, repairing of generator was implemented Chapai Nawabganj renovation work in dormitory and installation of submergible pump Jamalpur renovation work in dormitory, supply of mattress and bed sheet,
mosquito net Barisal supply of cot, repair of furniture and renovation work in dormitory
HC, Khulna - supply of cots, mattress and bed sheet, mosquito net,
and renovation of kitchen room Feni renovation of kitchen room Khulna supply of cots, mattress, bead sheets and mosquito nets and
renovation of kitchen
Output 1.3 Implementation of FFS
Workshops to review and plan for IFM FFS
Seasonal review and planning workshops for FFs have been conducted at regional, twice
during the reporting period, as planned. These workshops ensure coordination and link
bottom up plans with targets set in the DPP for the achievement of IFMC targets within the
planned time. Review and planning workshops also provide an opportunity to review the
performance of IFM FFS across the regions and upazillas including the performance of
individual FF’s. These are an opportunity to address issues arising, to clarify issues and for
47
two way communication between field level implementers and component managers.
Discussion includes challenges faced and constraints, including issues concerning the IFM
FFS curriculum and problem encountered for running the FFS. FFS plans along with issues
raised for resolution are then channeled back to the IFMC management. Feedback from these
workshops is then reviewed by the core team who make any necessary adjustments. A total of
1,706 FFs participated in the R&P workshop of which 369 (22%) were female.
Photo: Farmers gathering during FFS “Field Day” observation.
IFM FFS implementation
IFMC established 3,317 FFS in two seasons (Robi and Kharif-2) during the reporting period.
FFS were implemented in 371 upazilas of 61 districts under 6 IFMC regions (out of 373
Upazilas of 61 districts covered by the component) where 165,155 farmers (53% female)
participate in IFM FFS.
Each pair of farmer facilitators were allocated 2 FFS per season of which one included rice
module and other one was without rice and targeted former ICM or IPM groups (who have
previously been trained on rice production through FFS) or land-less farmers (who do not
have access to land for rice production). For many of the facilitators this was the first
experience of working with land-less farmers.
48
At the conclusion of each FFS a field day is organized and neighboring communities are
invited to attend. FFS participants prepare a number of demonstration booths and explain
what they have learned during the FFS. This is an opportunity to reinforce and share learning.
A total of 2,988 field days were held during the reporting period. In these farmers field days
approximately 478,000 participated where around 328,600 non-project farmers receive an
overview of IFM technologies in the reporting year. The estimate is based on an assumption
of 160 attending each field day, however the number is often higher.
Table 7. Number of FFS and farmers coverage by IFMC region
Region Nos. of
District
Nos. of
Upazila
Nos. of
FFS
Members
Male Female Total Femal
e
%
Barisal 11 66 695 16,721 18,028 34,749 52
Comilla 12 68 453 10,088 12,189 22,277 55
Jessor 10 51 338 7,898 8,952 16,850 53
Mymensingh 12 63 486 11,108 12,990 24,098 54
Rahsahi 8 66 694 16,547 18,107 34,654 52
Rangpur 8 57 651 15,815 16,712 32,527 51
All 61 371 3317 78,177 86,978 165,155 53
Figure 3. FFS implementation plan and achievement
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018
Target, Achievement and Future Plan of IFM FFS Implementation
DPP Target Achievement Plan
49
Coordination meetings at district and upazilas levels
Successful implementation of FFS as well as FOs needs strong coordination between the
IFMC staff and district and upazila level officers of DAE and other related organizations. To
facilitate this coordination IFMC has been provide support to organize 2 coordination
meetings per FFS season at the upazila and at the district levels to discuss relevant issues on
FFS and FO development. To the extent possible regional and district level staff of IFMC has
participated in these meetings along with participants from DAE and other related
organizations. FFS facilitators also participate in upaliza level coordination meeting. In the
reporting year total of 1,686 including upzilla and district coordination meetings were
conducted. The initial plan was for monthly meetings to be held, however this has found to be
impractical and unnecessary, with 2 meetings per season being sufficient to ensure good
coordination.
Monitoring and Backstopping of IFM FFS
This activity involves independent monitoring by local Upazila level GOB officers to ensure
the technical integrity of the IFM FFS. There is a provision of 11 monitoring and
backstopping visits by upzilla IFM team including UAO, ULO, UFO, AEO, SAPPO per FFS
and 2 monitoring by DAE district office per upzilla in a season. Besides this IFMC regional
office FFS team also monitor the IFM FFS in their respective region.
During the monitoring of FFSs, the monitor provides on the spot mentoring and advise to the
FFs as well as communicating their monitoring data and observations to the regional office.
The regional team of IFMC review all the data provided by the Monitoring Officers and take
initiative to discuss at the district and Upazila level coordination meetings for the issues to be
resolved locally and forward issues to IFMC management which require involvement of the
core team. In the reporting year an estimate of 13,369 monitoring and backstopping visits
were conducted.
Motivational tours
IFMC has provision for one motivational tour per Upazila per FFS season. The tours are
organized to learning areas within the district. Thirty farmer participants are selected from
amongst the implemented IFM FFS for each season. From the motivational tour FFS farmer
are exposed to new ideas as well as confirming their learning during the FFS. During this
reporting period 1,758 motivational tours were implemented in all ongoing project Upazilas.
Information services to FFS facilitators and participants through mass media & ICT
The component has a provision to support information provision to Farmer Facilitators and
the participants in FFS through ICT and mass media initiatives. Information provision should
be in support of FFS learning, general training and capacity development. For this purpose
44,760 copies of Krishikotha was distributed to IFM FFS facilitators and farmers, as well as
member of the IFM team in UAO office during the reporting period.
50
Photo: FFS Farmers demonstrating model of homestead gardening during FFS
field day at Shadullapur, Gaibandha.
Output 2 – Support to Farmers Organizations
Output 2.1 Curricula Development
Four curricula and/or tools have been developed in the past project year:
1. A draft curriculum for a 10-day residential BFP Market Linkage Training (MLT)
training, which is also used to train IFMC staff (IDOs, CDOs and ACDOs). A training
schedule with detailed session plans in both English and Bangla has been developed
and tested. A full facilitator’s manual still remins to be developed.
2. A draft FO-level handbook for BFPs in English and Bangla to facilitate eight FO
MLT sessions. The handbook comes together with a workshop guideline for DAE
officials and a draft MoU for FO and DAE to sign.
3. A draft MLT curriculum to DAE officials, which contains similar topics as the BFPs
curriculum, but is adapted to the level of education and skills of officials and the role
they are envisioned to play in implementation. Three different training schedules for
two, three and five days residential training respectively, have been developed with
51
detailed session plans in both English and Bangla. It remains to develop a full
facilitator’s manual.
4. A draft IFMC staff tool book with all the tools and forms used in the field work.
These four curricula take the total number of curricula developed to five under output 2. This
includes the FBS curriculum, which was completed in March 2014.
Many elements of FFS ToT teaching methodology have been applied in the curricula,
including the hands-on type of learning with many trials and experiments, participatory
learning through group work, role play, brainstorming, energizers, plenum discussions,
participant presentation etc. Also the facilitators evening planning meeting of the next day’s
sessions have been adopted as well as the use of day leaders, i.e. participants with specific
tasks to introduce time table, speakers, facilitators, do recap and facilitate transitions in the
program. By being day leaders the participants gain confidence in speaking and facilitating.
For the BFP training only use female day leaders are used in order to help overcome the
female participants’ shyness. It has been easy to introduce and keep these teaching and
facilitation elements and styles as they are well known by DAE and IFMC staff. (see training
subjects and information in Annex 2)
Output 2.2: Building Capacity of DAE officials
Training of staff from DAE and other related organizations
DAE officials have been trained progressively as work with FOs starts in new Upazillas.
Immediately after BFPs from a new Upazila are trained, DAE Officials from the same
Upazilas and districts are trained. Those who are selected for training are those who will later
play a role in implementation and supervision. SAAOs and SAPPOs are trained for five days
and UAOs and AEOs are trained for three days. District officials are trained when enough
new districts have been taken in to justify a full training. One new FO from each of the 61
districts will be covered initially until all districts have been covered.
Observations from the first batches of DAE official trainings indicate high level of interest in
marketing and agricultural markets and trends. This gives a lively training environment with
discussions and a lot of input from participants. The same interest and engagement is visible
in the DAE offices where officials are well prepared, engage in qualified discussions and
share market information from their Upazila. Some officials even produce Upazila maps with
locations of markets and FOs.
52
Photo: Map with FOs and markets created by SAPPO, Kurigram Sadar.
Gender balance in training of DAE officials is not obtainable. The percentage of women
working in DAE is very low and officials are selected according to their geographical
working area and title. It may be possible to carry out tailored trainings for female officials
exclusively to support upgrading of their skills.
Table 8. DAE Officials trained – project to date (2013 up to June 2015)
Title M M% F F% Total
SAAO 70 93 5 7 75
SAPPO 16 100 0 0 16
UAO 19 100 0 0 19
AEO 0 0 3 100 3
DTO/ADD 12 100 0 0 12
Total 117 94 8 6 125
In total 125 DAE officials have been trained under output 2. This is up against a target of
3,500 and represents only 4%. Thus, the project has still a lot to do on this output.
Output 2.3 Building capacity of FOs
Completion of the FBS pilot
The Farmer Business School (FBS) pilot in eleven FOs in eleven different Upazilas
continued from the previous year and into October 2014 where the last sessions were
conducted. Of the eleven FOs ten have started collective marketing activities and continued
up to end of the reporting period. Follow-up and mentoring visits have been conducted with
these FOs and additional activities such as inclusion of more producers, business planning for
additional commodities, cluster formation, input trade licensing, etc. have been conducted
53
with them. One FO got an IFM FFS allocated by the Upazila Agriculture Officer after raising
their needs for more production related support at a follow-up meeting.
Implementation of a second round of FBS
Due to the political situation and travel restriction in the first quarter of 2015 it was decided
to conduct a second batch of 22 FBSs in the same 11 Upazila with the same 11 pairs of
Farmer Business Facilitators (FBFs). Thus, no additional FBF ToT was conducted and no
leaders or focal persons from these new FOs were trained. The FBSs started in March and
most were completed in the months of June, July and August. Immediate results of these FBS
seem to be good as all those with available commodities have started business immediately
after completing their FBSs. This might be ascribed to the capacity of the facilitators, who
facilitated this second batch with more confidence and with experience from their own FO
business. How well these 22 FOs perform will be important to follow strategy-wise in order
to understand which trainings are important to conduct and which people are important to
train. In these FOs no leaders or focal persons were trained and yet they perform well.
Starting the Market Linkage Training
In May, when it was again possible to organize trainings that involve travel, and when the
draft strategy paper had been agreed upon internally, the first trainings of the MLT model
were arranged. The training set off at the beginning of June with the first batch of 44 BFPs
from 11 new FOs, from 11 new Upazilas, and 11 new districts. The training had two males
and two females from each FO included. The 10-day BFP training was followed immediately
by a 5-day training of 44 SAAOs.
FOs established with Executive Committees
In 2014-15 IFMC worked with 33 FOs of which 22 completed their FBS, and 11 just had
started receiving training, but not yet had started activities at FO-level. Since the start of the
project the total number of FOs is 44 against a target of 1062, i.e. 4%. Even though, this
number is low it should be seen in the context of a number of factors delaying take-off of FO
activities, i.e. late project start-up, hartal and travel restrictions, staff capacity, strategy design
and piloting.
A total of 426 assessments of producer groups (FOs) were conducted prior to start working in
new FOs. Around one third of the assessed FOs have been selected for further collaboration
and most are on waiting lists for upcoming trainings.
FO leaders and focal persons trained
In June BFPs from 11 FOs were trained. This batch counted 44 BFPs (23M/21F). The table
below shows gender aggregated numbers for trained persons.
54
Table 9. FO leaders training by sex
Model Batch Start
time
# of FO
in batch
M M% F F% Total
FBS FBS-1 Jan-14 11 18 82 4 18 22
FBS FBS-2 Mar-15 22 0 0 0 0 0
MLT MLT-1 Jun-15 11 23 52 21 48 44
Total 41 62 25 38 66
In total 66 leaders and focal persons have been trained up against a target of 5310, i.e. 1%. Of
the trained persons 62% were males and 38% females, but the gender balance is to be evened
out with the imposed gender quotas.
The total number of trained leaders and focal persons is by any means very low, however, an
unforeseen, additional, number of ordinary FO-members, i.e. 820, have been trained. This
will broaden the impact of the FO activities and should be taken into account in reporting. If
30 farmers/FO-members are trained on average per FO an estimated 30,000 farmers will be
trained at FO-level during the life span of the project.
Table 10. FO members training by sex
Model Batch
Start
time
# of FO in
batch M M% F F% Total
FBS 1 Mar-14 11 187 69 83 31 270
FBS 2 Mar-15 22 309 56 241 44 550
Total 33 496 60 324 40 820
The training at FO-level has turned out to be important as it prepares the producers for the
collective marketing activities and ensures their buy-in. It seems reasonable to give ordinary
FO-members basic business training as well as tools to challenge gender barriers and FO
governance issues. This helps preventing that a few individuals, due to greater insights,
dominate the process and hijack all benefits.
FOs with agri-business plans
All 33 FOs that have completed FBS have a business plans, i.e. 100% up against a target of
90%. This is not surprising as business planning is part of the FBS. Likewise, is it part of the
FO-level MLT to prepare an agri-business plan, so most probably the project will end at 100%
on this indicator. The results under market linkage indicate that the FOs are making good use
of the business plans and the exercise is leading to concrete results.
FOs maintaining relationships with MFIs
Concerns have been raised towards linking FOs and their members to MFIs. Mainly, the fact
that interests are too high and repayment schedules not match the agricultural seasons, i.e. the
micro loans are business loans not agriculture loans and repayments are weekly and starts
immediately. Another barrier is that the MFIs do not lend to FOs but to individuals in loan
55
groups, which the MFIs have their own methodologies to establish, train and work with.
Therefore, the MFI loans have not been so relevant to the work on collective marketing that
IFMC does.
What IFMC has decided to do is to:
encourage FOs to lend part of the FO savings to BFPs, either as individuals or
business sub-groups.
invite Krishi Bank (government bank for agriculture) to inaugural workshops at
Upazila level to inform FO-members of loan products and procedures. Krishi Bank
has low interest (subsidized) loans for specific agricultural sub-sectors.
task BFPs to encourage FO-members to open individual bank accounts where they
can accumulate their increased income and/or receive subsidies from the government.
FOs successfully linked to market opportunities
IFMC measures this indicator by looking at collective marketing and FO business, which has
been started as a result of the IFMC activities with the FO; collective marketing or other FO
business, should be ongoing and continuous (excepting seasonal gaps in availability of
commodities).
By end of the reporting period ten of eleven FOs from FBS batch 1 and 16 from FBS batch 2
are linked to new markets and doing collective marketing through a collector or a collection
point. The last six FOs from batch 2 are expected to start collective marketing after next
harvest (end of October or beginning of November 2015).
One FO is doing input business only. One is doing both input and output. The remaining FOs
are doing collective marketing of output, i.e. farm or homestead produce. One FO from batch
1 has not started any business yet and is not expected to. Among those who bulk and sell their
produce many bring their produce to the market, trader or processing plant. However, some
have entered more advanced trade arrangements where traders send lorries to pick up from
the collection point.
Thus, the percentage of FOs from batch 1, which qualifies for this indicator, is 90%. From
batch 2 almost 80% have started business but more are expected to do so. Therefore, IFMC
reaches its target of having 80% of FOs sustainable linked to market opportunities. Even
though, the sample of FOs to measure from is small, the results are good. This initial success
must be ascribed to success of the support activities, interest and enthusiasm among farmers,
and a certain level of trust among FO-members, which allows them to do things together that
involve money matters.
56
Table 11. Number of FOs sustainably linked to markets
Batch # of
FOs
# of FOs
with biz
plan
% of FOs
with biz
plan
# of FOs
started
biz
# of FOs
not
started
biz
% of
FOs
with biz
Remarks
FBS 1 11 11 100 10 1 90 One is not
performing
FBS 2 22 22 100 16 (6) (73) 6 expected to
start later
Total 33 33 100 26
To understand the outreach of IFMC’s FO activities it is important to look at how many
producers bulk through the new collective marketing systems. In some cases only 10-15
producers bulk and sell together, and they might not even all be among the trained farmers
(direct beneficiaries). However, in other cases more than hundred farmers bulk and sell
through the systems. In which case, the outreach rate seems to be very good with a high
number of indirect beneficiaries.
Number of trained farmers, non-trained FO-members and non-FO-members who bulk
through the collective marketing systems are seen in the table below. As it can be seen, on
average 45 producers per FO use the systems, whereas only 25 have received training. It
should be mentioned that the big numbers of producers are found in Comilla region, whereas
FOs in the other regions often have less than 25 beneficiaries per FO. On average one third of
the beneficiaries are women. However, the big numbers of women are from a few egg
businesses in Comilla region, whereas female beneficiaries are few in all other types of
output businesses.
Table 12. Number of beneficiaries through bulking by sex
S
L
#
FBS
Batch
# of
FOs
Direct
beneficiaries
Indirect beneficiaries Total (direct
+ indirect
beneficiarie
s)
Average
number of
producers
per FO # of trained
FO members
# of untrained
FO members
# of non-FO-
members
M F M F M F M F
1 1 10 80 37 81 38 34 105 206 180 21 18
2 2 17 190 104 167 65 280 38 628 207 37 12
Total gender 270 141 248 103 314 143 834 387 31 14
Grand total 411 351 457 1221 45 Notes 1: In batch 1 one FO, which will not inform about numbers has been taken out of the sample. Another FO
which has been phased out due to non-performance is included, but counts zero beneficiaries
Note 2: In batch 2 only FOs that have had available commodities after their newly completed FBS are counted
57
Photo: Collection point of Daserhat IPM Club in Kurigram Sadar. Twice a week farmers bulk taro.
The tall man with the book is registering the volumes of the individual producers. Three women get each 100 taka
for 2 hours sorting. 37 producers bulk through this collection point.
The one FO from batch 1 which did not start any business serves as a learning example. It has
turned out that the resistance to start business is caused by FO governance issues. The
president of the FO is a person who is politically active and from another social class than the
ordinary FO-members. There is a lack of transparency, which the ordinary FO-members have
been unable to challenge because of the hierarchical and social differences.
Learning from this case, the IFMC team has added a criterion on leadership and social
consistency in the selection procedure for new FOs. It is generally acknowledged that FO-
members of same social status collaborate better and are more transparent towards each other.
In addition, the subjects of good governance, transparency and accountability have been
included in all training curricula so everybody, including IFMC staff and DAE, learns to
watch out for and avoid groups with leadership challenges.
58
Output-3 National platform for farmer center extension actors
Output 3 aims to develop a platform where various progressive extension actors can meet and
exchange ideas. The aim is to systematically strengthen linkage in the field of agricultural
extension through close and frequent collaboration between all actors be they public sector,
NGOs or private sector. By the end of project IFMC will develop a “Best practice guidelines”
for group extension methodologies in Bangladesh in a useful format for the use of all partners
and future participants in agricultural extension in Bangladesh.
For this purpose potential stakeholders have been identified and consultative meetings held
on the design and function of the proposed National platform. IFMC organized a seminar in
February 2015 for the creation of a National Platform for Extension Actors. At the seminar a
Working Committee was agreed and formed which committee has the task, under guidance of
the Director General of DAE, of ensuring progress of the activities of National Platform for
Extension Actors with IFMC acting as secretariat.
.
Part of homestead gardening FFS farmers cultivate bottle gourd at Muktagacha,
Mymensingh
59
9. Strategic Issues
The following section contains information and discussion on issues which have emerged as
important or strategic during the reporting period and where various new initiatives have
been taken.
FFS Quality assurance strategy of IFMC:
DAE has vast experience and a great number of trained people when it comes to
implementing FFS. Within IFMC there are many highly experienced people at all levels and
the implementation of IFM FFS is, as expected progressing well. However, as pointed out by
the appraisal and GOB monitoring missions the main challenge for IFMC is ensuring the
quality of each and every FFS in such a large program. It is well known that if the FFS
approach is applied correctly, it will lead to empowerment of farmers by improving their
analytical skills and self-confidence, however this outcome depends on the ability of
implementers in terms of facilitation and monitoring, not just the technical messages.
Therefore IFMC has developed a quality control strategy the main aspects of which are
outlined below:
-Module based curriculum has been develop and is monitored, evaluated and updated from
regularly
-Farmer Facilitators’ capacity is developed as an ongoing process and they receive updating
and training through refreshers courses
-A reasonable number of FFS are allotment per FFs pair so as not to overload the facilitators
-Orientation of DAE Upzila, District and Regional level personnel is done regularly to ensure
their involvement and quality monitoring.
-Advance fund release to UAO to procure FFS materials and ensure timely start of FFS as
delays in start undermine the quality of the FFS, especially for weather dependent modules.
-FFS site selection and farmer selection done through transect walk and household survey to
ensure selection of a homogenous group of farmers belonging to the target group.
-Monthly FFS session plan prepared by FFs and monitored by the regional office
- BBT and PME done to evaluate training outcomes so that every FFS is evaluated in terms
of participants understanding of the various messages.
-Session conduction according to curriculum in participatory approach, group work
performed and timed to fit with actual crop season
-Trial setup, observe and record keeping according to guideline
-Conduction of AESA, FMA and IFM exercise according to guideline
-Record maintaining in FFS register to guide facilitators and allow appropriate monitoring.
-Mentoring by CMU FFS team to Regional IFMC FFS team
-Mentoring by Regional IFMC FFS team to FFs
-Provide Quality training for DAE officers
-Provide FFS guidelines for all FFs so that they have information available at all times.
-Organize Upazila Coordination Meeting and District Coordination Meeting twice per season.
-Sufficient and quality monitoring by DAE officers
60
Developing the FO Intervention Strategy
In the second project year a strategy paper for the FO interventions was developed in order to
give the IFMC team a roadmap to reaching FO targets.
To shape the strategy the team analyzed the following:
1. Results from the 11 FBS pilot FOs. The M&E team conducted a qualitative study of
the implementation process and outcome of the FBS. This study included the 11 pilot
FOs.
2. Market access models applied in similar projects, e.g. PROCHAR, implemented by
iDE and ACDI-VOCA; KATALYST implemented by Swiss Contact; and
BLUEGOLD implemented by the Bangladesh Water Development Board.
Also opportunities and limitations of implementing market activities through a government
institution, i.e. DAE, was considered as well as the IFMC output 2 staff capacity and
composition. In addition, a number of in-house consultative meeting were conducted in
IFMC and DAE and finally the Director General of DAE approved and endorsed the strategy.
The strategy presents a eight-step support package to the FOs. It was decided to call it the
Market Linkage Training (MLT) Model. Many elements from the FBS were kept as the
results of the pilot, in general, were good. Other elements were added, changed or removed.
Main principles of the strategy:
Market-driven activities
The main principle of the FO capacity building strategy is that activities must be market-
driven. This is to avoid ‘white elephants’, where farmers produce or add value to their
products in ways which are not rewarded by the market and translated into better prices to the
producers. Therefore, farmers are empowered to analyze markets, understand price
fluctuations and cyclical trends, access market information, negotiate with traders, respond to
traders’ requirements, establish market linkages and take more qualified decisions about
production and marketing. This implies that the main task of all IFMC staff and DAE
officials is to facilitate and support a process led by the farmers, not to apply a one-size-fits-
all market model with predefined steps. Each FO, each market and each opportunity is
different. Therefore, each business model and each benefit will be different as well.
Facilitating a process is more difficult than applying a standard model. It requires more staff
capacity. Fortunately, it finds resonance in the DAE district and Upazila offices. The DAE
sees itself as a service provider with a supportive and advisory role. Yet, it is still important
to build a common understand between DAE and the FOs that there is no enforcement, that
farmers are private sector, who take their own decisions, and that they have the right to do so
because they also bear all the risks.
61
Cluster approach
IFMC will work with a cluster of three FOs in each Upazila. If there are potential, existing
FOs one among these will be selected and trained. Later two nearby, newly completed IFM
FFS groups will be trained as well. In Upazilas where no existing, potential FO can be
identified one of the new and most potential IFM FFS groups will be selected as the first FO
in the cluster. By preference the selected FOs should produce some of the area-wise potential
cash crops, and by preference, the three FOs should produce some of the same commodities.
The cluster approach offers opportunities of economies of scale, market information
networking, and finance opportunities from the existing FO to new ones. That the existing FO
with savings will be interested and willing to lend to the newly established IFM FFS FOs,
however, is an assumption which will have to be verified, but even without this opportunity
the new FOs will get plenty of benefits from the new market infrastructures created through
the collective marketing in the existing FO.
As an additional benefit, working in Upazila FO clusters travel time and expenses for IFMC
staff and DAE.
Better prices
Business models where producers get better prices are promoted in the marketing training
and the support to the FOs when it discusses and agrees on a business model. When farmers
start to bulk their produce and manage to make a good market linkage they typically obtain a
slightly higher price. Typically, a share of the profit is given to the business organizers as a
commission fee to compensate for time vested in the business and that a share is returned to
the FO to increase its capital and ability to support investments. However, it is important that
the producers also feel an immediate financial advantage and not only save time and transport,
even though, these are also important benefits. Profit sharing builds trust in the FO and the
business organizers and it ensures that the target group of IFMC benefits and increases its
income. If extra income goes to business organizers only they would become just another
group of middlemen, and even though the new market systems would be more efficient, the
financial benefits might never trickle down to the target group.
62
Gender in Marketing Activities
Marketing and trade of agricultural products are male-dominated activities in Bangladesh
where women traditionally remain in the homestead compound. Although gender relations in
Bangladesh are changing it is still rare to see females in markets.
Photo: Banana market in Dosmail, Dinazpur. As can be seen ‘it is a man’s world’.
Generally women have little involvement in business activities and their engagement in
business at times leads to domestic or public conflict or criticism. The perception of
marketing being a male activity is widespread, also amongst project staff and officials of
projects and programs, IFMC not excepted. This is in spite of gender sensitizations, strategies
and targets, and probably enhanced by the fact that most project staff and officials are males.
Like everywhere in the world men consciously or unconsciously favor men in work related
issues and selection processes. The fact that most of the IFMC staff (70%) and DAE officials
(94%) are males might also make female farmers more shy to propose their candidature.
Therefore, to challenge this inherent gender imbalance in marketing and selection for
participation in marketing activities IFMC has shaped its strategic interventions in favor of
female participation and women’s economic empowerment.
Gender quota in BFP selection and training
The first important decision was to impose gender quotas in selection of Business Focal
Persons (BFPs). Before introducing strict quotas field staff was tasked to make a special
effort to identify potential female BFPs and strive towards a 50-50% target, but they were
allowed to select males if no interested and capable females were found. This approach
generated very few females. Therefore, it was decided to introduce quotas and to work with
four BFPs from each FO, instead of two, and of these four two must be women. Two BFPs
from each FO would technically have been enough to facilitate the subsequent FO-level
activities and to start the FO business, but would not lead to female involvement.
Field staff still report that it is difficult to identify enough interested and qualified women, but
nonetheless, now they manage. The fact that two females from each FO are selected
alongside two males might also have raised the interest. Now female BFPs are sure to have
another woman to travel, sleep and study with. It is also likely that it is easier accepted by the
husbands and that it is safer. The fact that they are two increases their confidence and interest,
63
and they are have proven to be capable. This came out clearly from the first 10-day BFP-
training where the three participants with highest scores in the post-training test all were
women.
Empowering female BFPs
Next thing was to create a training environment that would empower women. Firstly, women
were seated in front. Secondly, females only were selected as day leaders to give them a
chance to learn session planning and to present in front of the group more confidently.
Thirdly, females were encouraged repeatedly to speak. Fourthly, women and men were
sensitized on the importance of female participation in household and FO cash management
and decision-making – men were encouraged to let women take the floor and give room for
their participation. Fifthly, gender related topics were presented by male facilitators because
this generates more attentiveness among male participants. Otherwise ‘gender’ becomes a
synonym of ‘women affairs’, and implicitly understood as not relevant to men.
The facilitators of the BFP-trainings have well managed to encourage women and make them
participate to the same level as the men, and the training sessions have been very lively and
full of enthusiasm. Female BFPs have subsequently been observed as actively speaking and
presenting in their FOs. Some women might have been among the more outspoken already
before being trained, but others are ordinary housewives, who are very nervous to stand up in
front of their FO-members and talk. They do it nevertheless.
Photo: Active female participation, role-play on FO transparency in BFP-training, June 2015
Gender mainstreaming of training content
Finally, the training content in the BFP-curriculum was gender mainstreamed. Gender roles
and ways to challenge gender barriers were built into every session, group exercise and role-
play. In this way men and women were challenged in their perceptions and given tools to
challenge marginalization and discrimination in real life situations. The training curricula for
DAE officials were mainstreamed as well to inspire and provide tools to DAE officials to
support the FOs on improving gender balance.
Gender equity in the inaugural workshop
The inaugural workshop at Upazila level invites a number of government officials from
relevant departments, traders, bank representatives, BFPs and FO-leaders. Most of the
mentioned positions are traditionally filled by men. Therefore, to make the forum a little
more gender balanced an additional number of four female FO-members are invited to each
workshop.
64
Photo: inaugural workshop in Bhola.
Gender quota in FO-level activities
A quota of 50% females in FO-level activities was introduced to ensure fulfillment of gender
targets. It turned out that without strict quotas a greater number of men would be selected.
Arguments seemed to be the same: not enough interested and qualified women. However,
with a quota on females an additional number seem to appear.
Females in FO executive committees
Most FOs have executive committees, dominated by men, and most leadership positions are
filled by men. If there are females in the executive committees they are normally ‘ordinary
executive committee members’ with no specific designations or responsibilities.
IFMC has a target of having at least 80% FOs with a female chairman, secretary or cashier.
To reach this target DAE and IFMC field staff raise the gender issue with FO leaders when
assessing and selecting new FOs. Sometimes the gender balance is also challenged by newly
trained BFPs. FOs are encouraged to elect women to their executive committees and to give
them responsibilities by having them in leadership positions.
Even when females are elected to leadership positions their power and influence may be
limited through non-sharing of information, by electing a woman as substitute for her
husband, or by letting husbands run meetings on their wife’s behalf because ‘they are better
educated’. To avoid these type of situations DAE and IFMC FO field staff work with FOs to
increase the real influence of females. For example, by tasking females to conduct meetings,
choosing female signatories (one out of two), letting a female collect monthly fees and keep
records (if cashier), selecting females for business sub-groups especially sub-group leaders,
let females communicate with traders and service providers and selecting them as collectors
or bulk organizers. DAE and IFMC staff continually raises gender issues; they cite successful
examples of female FO leaders and entrepreneurs; and make sure they talk to females when
visiting an FO.
Gendered spaces and role models
The expected outcome of IFMC gender efforts is to see the emergence of female FO business
organizers, female collectors, females that create market linkages, females that negotiate with
traders, and females that manage the collective marketing finances. These females will serve
as role models for others and by performing the mentioned tasks will create ‘gendered spaces’
65
where women can more easily engage in business activities, access resources, engage in
dialogue, develop confidence and learn from successful women.
Women holding cash
Traditionally husbands hold household cash and receive the money when a household
commodity is sold. An exception is income from poultry, which is broadly recognized as
female income. In the IFMC Baseline 38% of the women had independent control over
income from poultry and another 38% share control with their husband. Only 1-4% of
women had control over income from other household enterprises. It is reasonable to assume
that most of these women were from female headed households as these households
constitute 3% of the baseline sample.
As mentioned earlier all IFMC FO-related curricula sensitize on the benefit of letting women
participate in decision-making and cash management. So far it is too early to measure the
output of this training, but it has been observed that some female FO-members obtain control
over income from their eggs after introducing collection points where the women hand over
the eggs to a collector instead of their husband.
Photo: After bringing eggs to a collector instead of their husbands some women gain control
over their egg income. Noakhali.
Building capacity of IFMC female staff
IFMC makes an effort to build capacity of its female staff as competent and confident field
workers. Female staff receives more training than males and are invited to assist at the
various DAE trainings. As assistants they have the opportunity to attend sessions, and
through repetition catch up where they initially has lower skills than male counterparts. The
most extrovert and capable females have been selected as potential facilitators of BFP and
DAE trainings and get extra support and opportunity for their development. Other females get
individual attention and support by their IDOs and the HQ FO-team.
Gender awards
To inspire IFMC FO staff, especially males, to strive to reach gender targets and support the
emergence of successful female business persons the HQ FO-team has a number of annual
gender awards in different categories.
66
Concrete Support to Farmers through IFM FFS
There has been some comment on the lack of financial incentive for farmers to participate in
IFMC activities, particularly FFS. It is the policy of IFMC not to pay farmer to participate but
rather to encourage participation through the quality of the interventions and the usefulness
and reputation of our work. For FFS participants, however, there are certain concrete benefits
to supplement the advantages of training. Farmers who participate in FFS receive exposure to
new technologies that can help them increase their production and income. They are
encouraged and advised on how to maximize income for the resources they have in terms of
land and labor, including proper utilization of space in the homestead area and increasing
income by integrating their various farm activities as well as resources.
Each FFS has a number of trials depending on the modules selected. The FFS budget includes
18,000 Tk for purchase of materials for trials, studies and demonstrations. These can include
vegetable seed, sapling of fruit trees for those involved in space utilization trials, 50% of the
cost of feed for beef fattening trials, fertilizer and rice seed for rice trials, feed and renovation
of housing cost for poultry trials, etc.
The FFS budget further includes an allocation for snacks for the field day held at the end of
the FFS. The field day budget is 5500Tk in total, for preparation, snacks and prizes.
For the implementation of one motivational tour per upzilla per FFS season budget is
30,000/- from Rabi season. But in kharif season each FFS group receives 10,000 Tk for a
motivational tour.
Each participating family receive 1,500 Tk at the end of the FFS which may be used to
procure relevant inputs such as seeds, seedlings, ducklings or fish fingerlings based on
interest generated from the learning during the FFS.
Farmer Facilitators, who are themselves farmers, receive an honorarium of 300 including
travel costs to the FFS site for each FFS session. There are also back stopping allowances for
the Upazila IFM team.
Total FFS budget including all modules is 108000/-, however in most cases it will be
somewhat less depending on the modules selected.
There is a provision in the DPP to increase the budget by 5% per year based on inflation.
67
10. Risk Analysis and Mitigation
Based on the risk analysis in the IFMC component document and DPP an update of the major
predicted risks are discussed below:
Slow and inflexible implementation
A one year delay in start up of a new program as affected IFMC is not unexpected and once
activities have gotten off the ground delays have been minimal and the component is well
underway. With a one year extension IFMC is highly likely to achieve component targets as
planned, in terms of outputs. Indications on outcomes are preliminary but positive. There
have been no negative developments on this risk up to the time of reporting.
The risk which has emerged under FFS implementation has related more to ensuring quality
of interventions in so large a program. The quality control strategy is detailed under strategic
issues in Chapter 9.
Lack of clear sector policy for integration of extension services will inhibit objectives
This risk appears to be declining and the expectation that successful integration of various
farm activities (including field crops, household production, livestock and fisheries) by IFMC
would lead to a positive trend in terms of integration more widely seems already to be on the
way to being met. At Upazila level departments are working well together, UAOs are taking
the lead in a positive way and IFMC is not meeting any resistance due to inflexibility in terms
of traditional roles and mandates. The level of interdepartmental cooperation at Upazila level
is somewhat variable, but is improving and is the focus of efforts by IFMC.
Gender social conditions will not allow for full participation of female members in FFS,
training and FO activities
This issue of gender in marketing is addressed in detail under strategic issues. In general there
is good progress and IFMC is able to benefit from enormous shifts in gender perceptions that
are taking place throughout Bangladeshi society during these years, however the threat
remains in certain areas and during 2014, for the first time it was necessary to intervene in a
running FFS because of opposition to females attending FFS sessions. This occurred at
Kanaighat Upazila in Sylhet where FFS activities started during Rabi 2014-15. Earlier two
farmer facilitators (FF) were selected and trained after which one IFM FFS was allocated and
started with help of Upazila Agricultural Office. At some point during the FFS season the FFs
informed the Upazila office that they are not able to continue this FFS due to local social
barriers which did not allow for men and women to sit together. This led to very poor
attendance at the FFS. The newly trained facilitators had become discouraged and submitted
application to UAO that they are willing to return all cost of their training to the project but
they would not continue as FFs. The Regional IFMC Coordinator, Comilla visited the upzilla
and discuss the issues with IFM FFS team and after a temporary halt made an arrangement to
continue the FFS with departmental trainer. Discussions were held with UAO and DDAE to
68
address the issues in the coming season. The situation will be monitored closely and it seems
that the gender issues are not the only challenge facing FFS implementation in this Upazila.
Market opportunities will not exist for farmers producing high value crops and other high
value agricultural commodities.
It is too early to assess these risks, however there are indications that access to markets may
be a concern in some areas and for some commodities due to the control systems operating in
many market places. These will be addressed on a case to case basis and cannot be addressed
in a general way.
There is no change in the assessment of risks in terms of coordination mechanisms and
fiduciary risk and sufficient mitigation measures are in place.
Photo: Jute producers at FO collection point, Kumarkhali, Kusthia
69
11. Budget and Expenditure
When drawing up annual work-plans IFMC follows the budget of the DPP of the GOB which
is developed based on the component description but which has some differences.
Allocations from GOB and the budget monitoring process is based on the Annual
Development Program (ADP) and the Project Director is held accountable to the latest ADP
budget.
According to the Component document the 2nd year (2014-2015) budget was 47 million DKK
from DPA (including contingency allocation of about 2.7 million) and 16 million DKK from
GOB, total 63 million DKK.
Based on ADP allocation initially 48 million DKK (693.8 million BDT) were budget for
2014-2015. Due to readjustment of some activities the budget amount was revised to 38
million DKK (540 million BDT). As of June 30, 2015 expenditure is 37.7 million DKK (536
million BDT) of which DPA is 31 million DKK and GoB 6.6 million DKK which are 99% of
the revised ADB budget for 2014-2015.
Output wise financial target and achievement of 2014-2015 shown below (Details in Annex
3);
Table 13. Financial target and achievement as of June 30, 2015 as per ADP allocation (Figure
in Lac Taka)
Description 2014-2015 Total Project
Target Achievem
ent
% DPP Target Cumulative as of
June 30, 2015
%
Output-1 3,844.10 3,925.01 102 26,474.30 4,155.72 16
Output-2 42.60 26.61 62 2,094.52 30.36 1
Output-3 8.50 2.70 32 60.00 2.70 5
Manpower 709.00 691.47 98 7,866.95 902.75 11
Operational 400.80 374.08 93 3,109.95 469.97 15
Capital 395.00 341.02 86 768.14 405.50 53
Contingencies 0 0 0 2,826.17 0 0
Grand Total 5,400.00 5,360.89 99 43,200.03 5,967.00 14
DKK (million) 38.00 37.7 99 300.00 42.00 14
1 DKK=14.2 BDT
70
Table 14. Financial target and achievement as of June 30, 2015 as per DPP (Figure in Lac
Taka)
Description 2014-2015 Total Project
Target as
per DPP
Achieve
ment
% DPP Target Cumulative
as of June 30,
2015
%
Output-1 5,402.41 3,925.01 73 26,474.30 4,155.72 16
Output-2 537.63 26.61 5 2,094.52 30.36 1
Output-3 16.5 2.7 16 60.00 2.70 5
Manpower 1,573.39 691.47 44 7,866.95 902.75 11
Operational 597.99 374.08 63 3,109.95 469.97 15
Capital 337.54 341.02 101 768.14 405.50 53
Contingencies 592.58 0 0 2,826.17 0 0
Grand Total 9,058.03 5,360.89 59 43,200.03 5,967.00 14
DKK (million) 63.8 37.7 59 300.00 42.00 14
1 DKK=14.2 BDT
________________
71
1 1.1.1
TNA, Workshop, consulting meetings ec. To
identify HVC, livestock and fish enterprises for
curriculum development
1 T&E team
2 1.1.2Workshops etc to develop and update curricula for
IFM1 T&E team
3 1.2.1Orientation and Training for MFs, SMSs, other
officers of IFMC2 Batches CMU
4 1.2.2 a) FF TOT on IFM (26 Days) 8 Batches T&E team
5 b) Season Long Learning for FFs (3 days) 11 Batches T&E team
6 c) Refreshers Training for FFs 67 Batches T&E team / RIC&RTC
7 1.2.3 a) SL TOT on IFM for AEO 1 Batch T&E team
8 a) SL TOT on IFM for SAPPO/SAAO 1 Batch T&E team
9 b) Crash Course for UAO/AAO/AEO 2 Batches T&E team
10 b) Crash Course for SAPPO/SAAO 2 Batches T&E team
11c) Orientation Workshop for Regional, District
level officers and UAO16 Batches T&E team / RIC&RTC
121.2.4
Study tours/short course/international trvel for
project staff and GoB officers24 peron DPD
13 1.2.5 Coordimnation Meetings at district and upazilla
level1372
14 1.2.6 Support to physical renovation of training centres 6 CMU
T&E team / RIC&RTC
16 1.3.2 Review and Planning Workshop for FFs 67 Batches M&E team/T&E team
17 1.3.2 Review and Planning Workshop for AEO 11 Batches T&E team / RIC&RTC
18 1.3.2 Review and Planning Workshop for SAPPO 14 Batches T&E team / RIC&RTC
19 2.1.1Workshop to develop & update curricula for DAE
staff, FO leaders1 FO team
20 2.2.1Training of DAE staff to facilitate development of
FO (5 Days)6 FO team
21 2.2.2Refreshers training for DAE officer in support of
FO development1 FO team
22 2.3.2 TOT of FBF on Farmers Business School (15 Day) 1 Batch FO team
23 2.3.2 SLL for FBF 1 Batch FO team
FO team/IDO
25 2.3.4 Review and planning workshop on FBS (1 Day) 8 FO team
Annex-1: Activity plan of IFMC (July 2014 to June 2015)
Month and Plan
Feb,15 May,15 Jun,15
24 Farmers Business School (FBS) Implementation 33 FBS
#
2.3.4
Name of ActivitiesTarget for
2014-15
15
Jul, 2014 Jan,15Aug, 2014Sep, 2014 Oct, 2014Nov, 2014
Budget
HeadResponsible
Dec, 2014 Mar,15 Apr,15
FFS Implementation 31001.3.1
72
263.1.1
Meeting to identify potential stackholders to
establish national forum2 CMU
27 3.2.1 National platform meetings 1 CMU
28 3.2.2 Field visits with National Platform members 2 CMU
29 3.3.1 Organize meetings with AFSP 2 CMU
30 3.3.2 Joint field visit with AFSP 2 CMU
31 PIC Meeting CMU
32 CSC Meeting CMU
33 Project Operation cost
Vehicle Maintenance LS Admin
Repair and renovation LS Admin
Book, Journals, CDs etc LS Admin
M&E (progress monitoring) LS M&E team
34 Capital (Purchase)
Vehicle 1 PC
Motorcycle 46 PC
Photocopiers 4 PC
Laptop 7 PC
Computers and UPS 12 PC
Printers 13 PC
LAN establishment 6 Systems Officer
Furniture & equipment (HQ, Region and district
offices), IPSLS PC
Cameras 20 PC
Scanner 4 PC
Month and Plan
Feb,15 May,15 Jun,15
# Name of ActivitiesTarget for
2014-15Jul, 2014 Jan,15Aug, 2014Sep, 2014 Oct, 2014Nov, 2014
Budget
HeadResponsible
Dec, 2014 Mar,15 Apr,15
73
Annex 2. Information sheet: Business Focal Person (BFP) Market
Linkage Training
Duration 10 days
Attendants Four (4) representatives from each Farmer organization (2M/2F)
Selection
criteria
Available time, business experience, education, facilitation skills
Objectives To make BFPs ready to facilitate market linkage training at FO-level
To enable BFPs to make market analysis and link to better-priced markets
To prepare BFPs to facilitate business planning
To make BFPs ready to organize and run collective marketing in their FO
To empower BFPs (M/F) to speak in public
To challenge gender perceptions and roles in FO and marketing activities
Subjects
covered
Markets &
Business
Farming as a business:
Definitions of market and business
Producing for markets - market-driven production planning
Production and market risks (demand and supply side)
Calculating and comparing household income, budgets and expenditures
Farm household record keeping
Markets and marketing:
Marketing of agriculture products
Price setting, demand and supply, price fluctuations, cyclical trends
Market relationships and negotiation skills
Agriculture commodities where women hold cash
Marketing and gender:
Gender roles in household decision-making and cash spending
Gender roles in business and marketing
Collective marketing:
Collective marketing, collection points, bulking and producer groups
Financial and non-financial benefits
FO business models, profit sharing, commissions, paid labor, prices
Expanding, scaling up, increasing number of producers
FO crop/commodity calendar and production planning at FO-level
Market Linkages:
How to establish linkages to better-priced markets
How to acquire and analyze market information
Meeting with input and output traders
Keeping a trader inventory
Linkage to finance
Business planning:
Calculating production and marketing costs
Sell projections
Timing, volume, buyers, value addition and financial resources
Value addition:
Definition of value chain (simple/through examples)
Value addition and post harvest management
Food safety and cleanliness
74
Grading and sorting
Packaging and storage
Subjects
covered
FO Capacity
Building
Good governance in FOs:
Good governance – responsibilities of leaders
Gender balance in FO leadership
Transparency and accountability
Civic rights and how to solve non-transparent leadership situations
Bookkeeping:
What is bookkeeping and why is it needed?
FO book keeping, i.e. savings register, loan distribution and realization
register, debit/credit vouchers, ledger, membership register
Collective marketing bookkeeping i.e. bulking and produce registers,
income and expenditure books
Subjects
covered
Facilitation
skills
Teaching skills development:
Facilitation skills and teaching adults
Participatory principles
Energizers, role play and group exercises
Session planning
Action planning:
Forming producer groups
Training FO members
Starting FO business
Practical
experience and
trials
Market visits:
Two (2) evening/night visits to agricultural whole sale markets at regional
and national level.
Discussion with traders
Understanding market systems, see how they work
Starting market inventories and network
Preservation techniques:
Trials to prolong shelf-life of eggs, mango, cucumber, grass and chili
Empowerment Day leaders:
The day leaders conduct recap, introduces time table, topics and speakers.
Each day two different day leaders are selected.
Only women are selected to increase their confidence.
Group exercise and presentations:
All participants are empowered through group discussions and by getting a
chance to speak and present in plenum.
Visiting markets, meeting traders:
It builds confidence to visit main whole sale markets and meet traders.
Farmers experience respect and interest as potential new suppliers.
Knowing the way makes the next visit easy
Farmers start having a network for linkages and information
Negotiation skills:
Farmers practice negotiations through role play
Planning
meetings
Each evening there is a planning meeting with facilitators new and old day
leaders and venue and lodging coordinators.
Post training
test
Multiple choice exercise (20 questions) combined with facilitations skills
assessment
75
Annex 3: Success Stories of IFMC farmers and Farmers
Organization
In support of the quantitative result monitoring, the monitoring team of IFMC have also
collect a number of case studies of households drawn from the different project areas on
different IFMC technologies, which also provide evidence of project result.
Success Story 1: The Tale of Renu Mondol, a light in her family.
Written by: Pratul Kumar Roy, M&E Officer, IFMC Barisal.
“It would be quite impossible for me to earn extra money for my family if Agriculture
Office of Rajoir Upazila , would not have organized Farmer field school through
IFMC project ” – Renu Mondol
Renu Mondol (37) is an uneducated woman who lives in Noakandi village under
Bajitpur union at Rajoir Upazila. Her husband, Dulal
Mondal (44) is a carpenter. They have two sons and two
daughters all in school between class IX and class I. A few
years ago, Renu Modal was passing an unhappy life and
seeing darkness everywhere as her family used to pass
days in a pitiable situation. There was only one earning
person but they had a big six member’s family. She was
tensed about the future of her children. Renu’s carpentry
work couldn’t earn more than TK. 6000.00 in a month. It
was difficult for Renu to fulfill her family’s basic needs with the small amount her
husband used to earn. Renu was not being able to accept poverty and always used to
think she needs to do something for the betterment of the family.
One day she came to know that Rajoir Upazila
Agriculture Office is going to arrange a training program
on agriculture for skills development of the farmers
through IFMC project. She became a member of
Noakandi IFM FFS. During the training period, she made
a plan to practice farming in the house by using
household resources. She started cultivating vegetables in
front of her house which was a waste land before. She
started selling vegetables and earning tk. 150/- to tk. 200/- bimonthly.
She also started rearing poultry as per instructions from
the training and used hajol for hatching chicken. She
took the initiative to hatch 80 chickens by using hajol in
eight times. She says that it is a wonderful system to
hatch chicks where no egg damages. She also started
rearing four cows of which 2 were on lease. She earned
76
tk. 3500/- by selling the two cows which were taken on lease. Renu Modal is rearing
five goats currently. She said it is a profitable business because young goats can give
birth two times in a year.
Renu has a small pond in front of home and has started cultivating fish in that pond.
In this year she has sold fish and earned tk. 7,000 and the production cost is tk. 3000.
Renu now follows modern technologies to cultivate land and different rearing systems
which have been learnt from FFS. By rearing poultry, cow and goat and cultivating
vegetables and fish she earns some money every day to meet up the family needs. She
follows an integrated cultivation process where disposal of one process is being used
in another cultivation process. Therefore, production cost is low and production is
high. She said “I am not unemployed anymore and am able to contribute in my
family and now I am very happy that I can help my husband to bear family expenses.”
What makes her happier is so many farmers visited her house and they were inspired
to cultivate those crops in front of their households following the IFMC process.
By this FFS, a good relationship has been built up among the farmers and government
officials because they get the opportunity to exchange knowledge among themselves.
IFMC project has opened up her eyes and brought economic solvency in her family.
Now she bears the educational expenses of her children and knows that there is no
obstacle in the way of her children’s education and dreams for a better future.
77
Success Story 2: Dharitry’s dream
Written by: Sk. Abdul Monir, M&E Officer , Jessore Regional Office
Dharitry Pramanna (age-35 year) is wife of a poor farmer Bhuban Pramanna in
Jalekhali village, Jelekhali union of Shyamnagar Upazila under Satkhira district.
Shyamnagar upazila is situated at the southern
corner of Shundarbans in Bangladesh. There people
are poor but ambitious in crop cultivation, though
struggling against natural disasters like Sidr and
Ayla. They are mainly dependent on crop cultivation
and fish culture. Many of them are landless and
doing agricultural production on lease lands as share
croppers.
Bhuban Pramanna cultivates rice and other seasonal vegetables on shared land. The
couple has a 15 year old daughter studying in class X and one son who is 12 year old
and studying in class IV at a local high school. Dharitry has a dream that her children
should get better and higher education. She always thinks how to fulfill the demand of
her children to make her dream comes true.
Dharitry was clear on her limitations, knowing her husband had very limited lands to
produce crops; so she needs to utilize her land in a planed way. Thus she was thinking
to do something like integrated farming at her tiny homestead and was eager to get
technical knowledge and support to utilize her small homestead for agricultural
farming.
She recalls that in March 2014 her neighbor, the SAAO of the block, was listing
farmers’ names and household
information for forming Farmer Field
School (FFS). She became very happy
and requested to be enlisted in the school.
Finally, she became a member of the
FFS with the help of the concern SAAO.
She had a saving of Tk. 2500/= that she
had been saving from more last than one
year. She had plan to purchase 2 hens
and 2 ducks by taka 1000/= and got 2
goat kids as a gift from her father’s house. She had started rearing the chicks,
managed broody hens at hajol and separated the chicks after 7 days as per guideline of
IFM FFS. Number of ducks became 8 from which she sold 4 ducks at taka 1200/=.
Her goat started growing as well and gave her 4 kids within the next 9 months. After
one year, the number of goats became 5 and she sold two of them to pay for school
admission for her children.
She started to prepare quick compost nearer her cattle shed for use on her home
garden where she grew winter vegetables (spinach, bottle guard, brinjal) and summer
78
vegetables (lady finger, bitter guard, long beans). She sold the vegetables at Tk.
4000/=. Then she bought a 9 month calf by giving an advance of taka 4000/= of the
total price of Tk. 8000/=.
Dharitry started getting results after six months, as she got 12 chicks from her hen
after three months. She made her first income by selling 4 young chicks at Tk. 800
after six months. She re-invested the income for feed purchasing. Now she has one
milking cow with one calf, one goat with two calves, 8 hens, 10 chicks and 3 ducks
with 7 ducklings. She has seasonal vegetables and round the year fruits at her
homestead. Her present asset value is as below:
Total investment Selling profit of farm activity
Winter HVG (seed, fertilizer)= 600 Vegetable sold = 1200
Summer HVG (seed, fertilizer) = 400 Vegetable sold = 600
Hen 2 = 400 Hen 4 = 800
Duck 2 = 600 Duck 4 = 1200
Heifer 1 = 8000 Goat 2 = 9000
Feeding cost 200 X 12 month = 2400
Total cost = 12,400 Total selling amount = 12,800
Profit re-invested Net profit = 400
Present Value
39,610/=
Present value:
1 dairy cow = 25,000/-
1 calf= 5,000/= 30,000
Goat 1= 4000/=
Goat kid 2= 3000/= 7,000
2 hen = 600/=
6 small hen= 900/=
10 chick= 300/=
Duck 3= 600/=
Duckling 7= 210/= 2,610
Total value =39,610/-
It shows that a female farmer of rural Bangladesh can start a profitable farm business
if she has a dream, gets training, and receives technical support and proper guidance
on agricultural farming.
Dharitry has been cultivating seasonal vegetables and planting seasonal fruit trees at
her homestead according to the IFM FFS guideline. She is happy after rearing hens,
ducks, goats and milking cows by following the improved method of IFM practice
with her husband jointly.
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Success story 3: Start-up of Barokhurma FO egg business
Introduction: The Barokhurma IPM Farmer Organization (FO) is located to the Northeast part
of Bangladesh close to Sylhet town. It was established in 2004. It has 62 members
(37M/25F) from 38 households and a female chairman. The FO collects monthly
member fees of Tk. 30 per member and saves the money in Sonali Bank Ltd.
Market Linkage training
In 2015 four members, Atiquar, Nur, Rubina and Ruzina (2M/2F), were selected
as Business Focal Persons (BFPs). They subsequently attended a 10-day training
on collective marketing and business planning.
Planning early business
When the four BFPs were back in Barokhurma FO they called for a meeting. They
invited the members, FO-leaders, the union’s Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officer
(SAAO), project staff from IFMC and an egg buyer from Sylhet market. At the
meeting the BFPs told their co-members what they learnt at the training. Among
others they talked about ‘female friendly business’ where women are involved
and hold cash after selling. The members tasked Rubina to start an egg business
and the FO gave her a loan of Tk. 3,000 to facilitate the business start-up. The egg
buyer, Ahmed, promised to buy the eggs if price and quality were good.
Photo: BFP, Rubina, negotiates with an egg buyer at Sylhet market
80
Organizing a producer group:
After the meeting Rubina went from house to house and registered interested
producers. Women from twelve FO families were interested and had eggs to
supply. Rubina gathered the women to form a producer group. They agreed that
Rubina would buy their eggs on a rate of Tk. 8.75 per piece and that margins
gained from selling to Ahmed would be shared with 40% to the FO and 60% to
Rubina.
Opening a collection point:
Rubina organized a collection point at the FO office. It was scheduled to be open
on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 12 am to 3 pm. At the collection point she
received eggs and paid the women cash.
Marketing the eggs:
After collecting 77 eggs Rubina communicated with Amhed and went to Sylhet
egg market. Upon arrival they checked the eggs together. They found one broken
egg, but the rest were fine. Then Rubina negotiated the day price of the eggs.
Ahmed agreed to pay Tk. 10.70 per egg. She handed over the eggs to him and
received the cash money in return. In addition to selling her own eggs she had
earned an extra Tk 81.75 and had Tk 54.50 to bring back to the FO. When she left
she told Ahmed that she would go back and organize more producers and bring
even bigger amounts of eggs next time. This was the beginning of Barokhurma’s
egg business and it was the first time Rubina went to a market and tried to
negotiate with a buyer.
Photo: Rubina with eggs producers
81
Success Story 4: The Seed Business of Kalupur ICM FO
Introduction
The Kalupur ICM Farmer Organization (FO) was established in 2007. It falls
under Chapai Nawabganj Sadar
Upazila close to the Indian border
in the Western part of the country
close to Rajshahi town. The FO has
50 members from 25 household, a
male and a female from each. The
FO was formed after receiving
training through a Farmer Field
School (FFS) on Integrated Crop
Management (ICM). It was
registered in 2009 under the Social
Welfare Department. Now it has a 9
members Executive Committee of
which 6 are males and 3 are
females. One of them has been elected as Assistant Secretary. The FO started
collecting monthly fees from the beginning and have saved the money in
Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank.
Farmer Business School and business planning
In 2014, Kalupur ICM FO established a Farmer Business School (FBS) under
IFMC and got training on collective
marketing and business planning.
Therefore, they planned a new
collective business. They had already
experience with rice seed production
and had sold it to each other internally
in the FO. Therefore, they decided to
scale up the seed production, improve
the quality and start selling it to
outsiders.
Production and marketing
By the help of the Upazilla Agriculture
Officer (UAO) the FO members
collected foundation seeds of improved
varieties from Bangladesh Agriculture
Development Corporation (BADC).
They distributed the seeds to ICM
82
farmers formerly trained in seed production. After harvest they collected the
seeds from the farmers and did
threshing, grading and storage
according to the recommendations.
When time came for selling the seeds
they packed it in improved packaging
material and started selling it. The
technical support and advice related to
production and marketing was given by
the organization. The FO had
established different sub-committees to
organize the production, storage and
marketing. They had a Seed Production
Committee and a Seed Preservation
Committee. Two members were
responsible for organizing and
managing the business.
Investment and profit
The organization invested Tk. 184,203 in the rice seed business and gained a
profit of Tk. 67,647.
Profit Sharing: The profit from the investment was Tk. 67,647 from which the two members
who were organizing and managing the business got Tk. 13,529 at a 20% rate.
The organization got Tk. 54,118, i.e. 80%. The FO divided the surplus among all
members so that every member got an extra Tk. 1082 written into their savings
book. For this reason, the organization became reputational and many nearby
farmers want to become members.
What’s next?
As per demand of the local farmers and members, the FO has taken initiative to
cultivate ‘BRI 28’ and ‘JIRA’ in 3 acres of land in the next Boro season. There is a
plan to invest Tk. 623,912 in seed production and marketing, and this time the
FO will also produce and sell mustard seed. Members’ savings and organizational
profit are included in the next start-up capital.
83
They have five broody hens and 50 pullets. She gets eggs and chicks continuously. He cultivated vegetable in 15 decimal lands in this season. He prepared his land as bed system and as a result he got optimum production. He earns BDT 1000 per week. Simultaneously he cultured fish. His yearly income is around BDT 70000 (US$ 875) from his farm. This season he cultivated vegetable on 15 decimal land. He prepared his land as bed system as a result he got optimum production. He earned BDT 1000 per week. His yearly income around BDT 70000 (US$ 875) from farm.
Success Story 5: Changing life of Ahad Miah through vegetable gardening and
poultry rearing. Written by: Rafiqul Islam, M&E Officer, IFMC Mymensingh
Ahad Miah and Fatema’s family is poor. They live in Janukipur village, Chandragona
Union of Nakla Upazilla with their two daughters. Ahad Miah used to be a transport
helper and the sole earner of the family, but
his earnings were not enough to fulfill their
family’s basic needs. His wife Fatema is a
house wife. The family used to live
miserably in a tiny house and Ahad tried to
free his family from the curse of poverty but
with little success. In 2014 Field Facilitator
Abu Hanif came to their house while he was
surveying households for Farmer Field
School (FFS) establishment. They had a
discussion with the FF and joined the DAE-
DANIDA conducted IFM FFS as members.
Through the IFM FFS sessions they learned about rice cultivation, homestead
gardening, poultry rearing, cattle rearing and fish culture.
Through FFS they got enough confidence to grow vegetable and do poultry rearing.
Fatema started poultry rearing according to the FFS leanings. She made hygienic
poultry house following the lessons and gives supplementary feed and provides
vaccine and medicine by following the dose. At present she has 5 (five) broody hens
and 50 pullets. She gets eggs and chicks continuously. She earns 1500 BDT per
Photo: Ahad Miah in his vegetable garden
84
month from poultry rearing after family consumption. On the other hand Ahad Miah
also started vegetable gardening and in 2015 he started vegetable cultivation which
made him a little bit more optimistic. He cultivated vegetable in 15 decimal lands in
this season. His cultivated varieties are brinjal, bitter gourd, pointed gourd and
cucumber. He prepared his land as bed system and as a result he got optimum
production. He earns BDT 1000 per week. Simultaneously he cultured fish. His yearly
income is around BDT 70,000 (US$ 875) from his farm.
This couple plan to cultivate vegetable in 50 decimal lands next year. Ahad renovated
his house with the extra income and that also changed their status. Now their children
are going to school and they are capable of meeting up the basic family needs. This
income has enabled them to build a new and improved house for family. Ahad Miah
is also financially sound and providing his daughter better education and she is now
studying in primary level. The IFM FSS learnings changed their level of knowledge
and made them confident. Ahad Miah and his wife are happy as they are able to make
mutual decisions regarding family matters and expenditures. Fatema and her husband
believe that they both have learnt a lot about the farming system and now are planning
to do investments in a more productive manner which is a direct result of participation
in IFM FFS. This has allowed their family to have a better livelihood. Fatema
believes that this project has developed a strong understanding between herself and
her husband and provided them a better livelihood.
85
Annex 4: Details budget and expenditure for 2014-2015
Budget
Head Activities/Items
DPP Provision 2014-15 Target Progress up to June,2015 Cumulative progress (30 June 15)
Phy. Financial Phy. Financial Phy. Financial Phy. Financial
GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total
Manpower
HQ, Region & District 179
623.40
5,749.00
6,372.40 160
70.00
500.00
570.00 179
68.14
442.43
510.57 54
75.28
610.60
685.88
Allowances 179
293.60
1,200.95
1,494.55 160
63.00
76.00
139.00 179
60.31
120.59
180.90
66.63
150.24
216.87
Subtotal Manpower
917.00
6,949.95
7,866.95
133.00
576.00
709.00
128.45
563.02
691.47
141.91
760.84
902.75
Output-1
1.1.1
TNA, workshops, consultation
meetings, etc. to identify HVC,
livestock and 45 fish enterprises
for curriculum development
4 2.00 2.00 1 0.50 0.50 1 0.50 0.50 1 0.00 0.50 0.50
1.1.2
Workshops, etc. to develop and
update curricula for IFM FFS
menu modules 4 2.00 2.00 1 1.00 1.00 2 1.00 1.00 2 0.00 1.00 1.00
1.1.3 Field testing of curricula,
modules, lesson plans 4 4.00 4.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
1.1.4
Support to adaptive research
trials targeting IFM curriculum
development 100 200.00 200.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
1.2.1 Orientation & training for MFs,
SMSs, other officers of IFMC 2 4.00 4.00 2 4.00 4.00 2 4.00 4.00 2 0.00 4.00 4.00
1.2.2.(a) FF-TOT 20 300.00 300.00 8 118.00 118.00 8 106.48 106.48 14 0.00 184.10 184.10
1.2.2.(b) FF-SLL 20 72.00 72.00 6 21.00 21.00 11 24.18 24.18 11 0.00 49.90 49.90
1.2.2.(c) Refresher course for FFs 50 180.00 180.00 10 80.00 80.00 23 85.35 85.35 23 0.00 85.35 85.35
1.2.2.(d) Special training for FFs 10 36.00 36.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
1.2.3.(a) DT-TOT 6 384.00 384.00 2 119.23 119.23 2 108.22 108.22 2 108.22 0.00 108.22
86
Budget
Head Activities/Items
DPP Provision 2014-15 Target Progress up to June,2015 Cumulative progress (30 June 15)
Phy. Financial Phy. Financial Phy. Financial Phy. Financial
GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total
-
1.2.3.(b) Crash course for DT 30 100.50 -
100.50 4 10.00 10.00 4 10.89 10.89 16 46.41 0.00 46.41
1.2.3.(c)
Orientation of Upazila, district
& regional level staff of DAE
& other related organizations 30 54.00
-
54.00 17 17.00 17.00 16 19.75 19.75 29 35.30 0.00 35.30
1.2.4
Study tours/short course/
international travel for project
staff & GOB officers 60
-
180.00 180.00 24 72.00 72.00 24 71.41 71.41 24 0.00 71.41 71.41
1.2.5 Coordination meetings at
district and Upazilas levels 11580 115.80
-
115.80 1684 17.77 17.77 1686 17.95 17.95 1686 17.95 0.00 17.95
1.2.6 Support for physical renovation
of training centres 6
-
60.00 60.00 6 30.00 30.00 6 17.98 17.98 6 0.00 27.49 27.49
1.3.1
Implementation of IFM FFS
(including cost of motivational
tours and mass media activities) 20000 5435.00 16305.00 21740.00 3300 192.00 3100.00 3292.00 3318 105.43 3164.63 3270.06 4707 105.43 3181.88 3287.31
1.3.2 Review & Planning Workshops 200 -
260.00 260.00 40 50.00 50.00 67 50.93 50.93 93 0.00 100.47 100.47
1.3.3 Monitoring/backstopping IFM FFS 1088.00 1632.00 2720.00 11.60 11.60 132.42 132.42 0 132.42 0.00 132.42
1.3.4
Information services to FFS
facilitators and participants
through mass media & ICT
-
60.00 60.00 0.00 3.89 3.89 0 0.00 3.89 3.89
Sub total Output 1 7177.30 19297.00 26474.30 367.60 3476.50 3844.10 394.66 3530.35 3925.01 445.73 3709.99 4155.72
Output-2
2.1.1 Workshop to develop & update
curricula for DAE staff, FO leaders 5
-
2.52 2.52 1 0.60 0.60 1 0.90 0.90 1 0.00 0.90 0.90
2.2.1 Training of DAE staff to facilitate
development of FO (5 Days) 30
-
90.00 90.00 6 18.00 18.00 2 1.08 1.08 2 0.00 1.08 1.08
2.2.2 Refreshers training for DAE officer
in support of FO development 60
-
120.00 120.00 1 2.00 2.00 -
0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
87
Budget
Head Activities/Items
DPP Provision 2014-15 Target Progress up to June,2015 Cumulative progress (30 June 15)
Phy. Financial Phy. Financial Phy. Financial Phy. Financial
GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total
2.3.1
Assess producer groups/
farmers clubs with potential to
graduate into higher level FOs 5000
-
50.00 50.00 0.00 400 4.00 4.00 400 0.00 4.00 4.00
2.3.2 Training of FOs leaders and
focal persons 360
-
720.00 720.00 1 2.00 2.00 33 20.63 20.63 33 0.00 20.63 20.63
2.3.3 Mentoring and follow up visits 5000 -
50.00 50.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.73 0.73
2.3.4
Support to FOs for linkage
building, cooperation, registration,
etc.
1062 -
1062.00 1062.00 20 20.00 20.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 3.02 3.02
Sub total Output 2 0.00 2094.52 2094.52 0.00 42.60 42.60 0.00 26.61 26.61 0.00 30.36 30.36
Output-3
3.1.1
Meetings to identify potential
stakeholders to establish
national dialogue forum 20
-
10.00 10.00 2 1.00 1.00 2 0.91 0.91 2 0.00 0.91 0.91
3.2.1
Create national platform for
extension actors for
coordination and exchange of
lessons
20 -
10.00 10.00 1 0.50 0.50 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
3.2.2
Joint activities including visits
to field implementation and
presentations on extension
approaches
20 -
20.00 20.00 2 4.00 4.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
3.3.1 Organize national seminar
(AFSP) 20
-
10.00 10.00 2 1.00 1.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
3.3.2 Joint field visit with AFSP 10 -
10.00 10.00 2 2.00 2.00 2 1.79 1.79 2 0.00 1.79 1.79
Sub total Output 3 0.00 60.00 60.00 0.00 8.50 8.50 0.00 2.70 2.70 0.00 2.70 2.70
a) Project Operation Cost Econo.
Head Head Quarter Level 4901 Maintenance of 4 vehicles 119 27.00 84.00 111.00 3.00 36.00 39.00 2.00 64.49 66.49 0 9.51 88.09 97.60
88
Budget
Head Activities/Items
DPP Provision 2014-15 Target Progress up to June,2015 Cumulative progress (30 June 15)
Phy. Financial Phy. Financial Phy. Financial Phy. Financial
GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total
4818 Stationary & supplies LS 20.00 45.00 65.00 15.00 18.00 33.00 5.00 21.77 26.77 0 10.84 33.10 43.94
4991 Telephone, internets, postage LS 9.00 36.00 45.00 20.00 20.00 0.00 11.44 11.44 0 0.00 16.06 16.06
4899 Repair & Renovations (2/year) LS 60.00 8.00 68.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 7.50 2.90 10.40 0 7.50 7.17 14.67
4889 Book, journals, CDs, etc. LS
-
0.60 0.60 5.00 5.00 0.00 1.06 1.06 0 0.00 1.35 1.35
4886 Audit fee LS
-
12.35 12.35 2.40 2.40 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
4901 M&E (impact assessment) 3
-
120.00 120.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
4883 M&E (progress monitoring) 15 15.00
-
15.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
Region Offices
4901 Maintenance of 12 vehicles & 5
motorcycles
-
126.00 126.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
4818 Stationary & supplies (2 lots
per year per office) 120.00 60.00 180.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
4991 Telephone, internets, postage 54.00 72.00 126.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
4899 Repair & Renovations (2/year) 120.00 42.00 162.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
4889 Book, journals, CDs, etc.
-
28.00 28.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
4889 Office Rent and Others 26 0.00 120.00 120.00 18.35 40.00 58.35 10.08 33.97 44.05 0 10.08 50.60 60.68
District Offices
4901 Maintenance of 40 motorcycles
for 60 months
- 120.00 120.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
4818 Stationary & supplies (2 lots
per year per office)
- 200.00 200.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
4991 Telephone, internets, postage
(40 offiers for 60 months)
- 480.00 480.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
4899 Office Rent and Others (20
offices for 60 months)
- 180.00 180.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
89
Budget
Head Activities/Items
DPP Provision 2014-15 Target Progress up to June,2015 Cumulative progress (30 June 15)
Phy. Financial Phy. Financial Phy. Financial Phy. Financial
GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total
4899 Repair & Renovations (2 lots
per year per offices)
- 50.00 50.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
Support to DAE Field Office 0
4899 4840
Upazila Agriculture Offices
354 708.00
- 708.00 187.60 187.60 369 156.17 156.17 369 177.97 0.00 177.97
4899
4840
Deputy Director Offices
61 183
- 183.00 31.75 31.75 61 30.5 30.5 61 30.5 0 30.5
4899
4840
Additional Director Offices
14 10
- 10.00 8.7 8.7 13 27.2 27.2 13 27.2 0 27.2
SubTotal Operational Cost 1326.00 1783.95 3109.95 269.40 131.40 400.80 238.45 135.63 374.08 273.60 196.37 469.97
TOTAL REVENUE
9,420.30
30,185.42
39,605.72
-
770.00
4,235.00
5,005.00
-
761.56
4,258.31
5,019.87
-
861.24
4,700.26
5,561.50
b) Capital Component
6807 Vehicle 2 0.00 100.00 100.00 2
- 70.00 70.00 2
- 56.72 56.72 2 0.00 56.72 56.72
6807 Motorcycles 91 0.00 136.50 136.50 46
- 55.00 55.00 46
- 47.25 47.25 91 0.00 93.07 93.07
6815 Computers with UPS 50 0.00 25.00 25.00 30
- 21.50 21.50 30
- 15.53 15.53 37 0.00 19.56 19.56
6815 Printers 52 0.00 6.24 6.24 30
- 4.76 4.76 30
- 2.85 2.85 31 0.00 3.05 3.05
6815 LAN establishment 6 0.00 3.00 3.00 6
- 2.00 2.00 4
- 2.50 2.50 4 0.00 2.50 2.50
6813 Photocopiers 23 0.00 69.00 69.00 5
- 34.00 34.00 6
- 10.67 10.67 7 0.00 15.40 15.40
6821 Furniture & equipment (HQ,
Region and District Offices) LS 70.36 25.50 95.86 LS 38.00 2.00 40.00 LS
38.00
1.09 39.09 LS 38.00 10.79 48.79
6815 Laptop 7 0.00 3.50 3.50 7
- 3.50 3.50 7
- 3.50 3.50 7 0.00 3.50 3.50
6815 Multimedia with screen 3 0.00 1.80 1.80
-
-
- 0.00
- 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
6812 Cameras 20 0.00 2.00 2.00 20
- 2.00 2.00 12
- 1.58 1.58 12 0.00 1.58 1.58
6815 Scanner 4 0.00 0.24 0.24 1
- 0.24 0.24 1
-
- 0.00 1 0.00 0.00 0.00
7901 CD/VAT LS 325.00 0.00 325.00
LS 162.00
- 162.00 LS 161.33
- 161.33 161.33 0.00 161.33
90
Budget
Head Activities/Items
DPP Provision 2014-15 Target Progress up to June,2015 Cumulative progress (30 June 15)
Phy. Financial Phy. Financial Phy. Financial Phy. Financial
GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total GoB DPA Total
TOTAL OF CAPITAL 395.36 372.78 768.14 200.00 195.00 395.00 199.33 141.69 341.02 199.33 206.17 405.50
c) Physical Contigency
281.25 526.23 807.48
-
-
- 0.00
-
-
- 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
d) Price Contigency
703.11 1315.58 2018.69
-
-
- 0.00
-
-
- 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Grand Total (REVENUE + CAPITAL) 10800.02 32400.01 43200.03 970.00 4430.00 5400.00 960.89 4400.00 5360.89 1060.57 4906.43 5967.00
91
Annex 5: IFMC Gender Strategy table for implementation:
Update to July 2015
Result how achieved specific actions STATUS -
Marginal
and small
farm
household
have
increased
and
diversified
agricultural
production
• selection of interested
farmers
• select both male and female household
members
• In case of permanent absence of man
invite 2 women from households
• One male one female member from
each household
• FHH included
• Inclusion of 2 females from households
were men are engaged in work outside
the homestead is taking place
• invite all potential households
• stimulate women to actively participate • All households invited
• selection of environmental,
economic and social
relevant products/produce
(plant/animal/fish)
(including High Value)
• gender specific questions
• explicitly address women
• gender sensitive facilitation of the
meetings
• Baseline survey carried out accordingly
with specific questions addressing
women’s issues
• training through FFS
approach
• Women relevant topics (Not necessarily
topics only relevant for women)
• Inclusion of household gardening and
small livestock and poultry has
generated strong interest from female
participants.
• On-going training of FFs in relevant,
participatory facilitation skills
• availability of required
resources (capital, inputs,
labor)
• Awareness raising that responsibilities
for household and spending household
income is shared responsibility
•
• Awareness raising on gender issues in
terms of control and access to resources
is informally included in training –
needs to be formalized.
92
Result how achieved specific actions STATUS -
• (financial) incentives for
increased and/or diversified
production
• Identify most convenient market
opportunities for women (Including
option of FO)
• Women should physically receive the
money, also when sold by male family
member.
• Marketing opportunities and women
holding money is explicitly addressed
under output 2 activities
• continuous evaluation and
adaption of learned
technologies
• experiment as much as possible with
local inputs and on participants own plot • Evaluation needed but initial results are
positive
• support from peer farmers • stimulate also female FFS graduates to
work together on production issues •
• support from Farmer
Facilitators
• FF making sure to visit both male and
female farmers, if needed by calling
female gatherings
• Efforts to increase number of female
FF and to sensitize FFs on gender issues
FFS training
implemented
• selection of potential FF
amongst FFS participants
• selection primarily to be based on
performance and qualities shown by FF
candidates during FFS
•
• Efforts to increase number of female
FF. In the FFs selected during IFMC
22.4% are female, compared to 17.5%
in the group of FFs at the start of the
program. There are considerable
challenges in convincing female FFS
graduates to become FFs.
• teams of 2 FF per village
(male + female)
• equal responsibilities and distribution of
tasks • Unlike in the past both FFs are invited
to trainings and review and planning –
when only one per team was invited,
females often did not attend. If
necessary to invite only one due to
budget constraints FFS will take turns
to ensure females attend at the same
rate as men.
• training of FF (basic and
refresher)
• environment: women feel safe,
• suitable boarding facilities
• At all Horticulture centers
improvements are being made to ensure
93
Result how achieved specific actions STATUS -
• equal assignment of tasks and
responsibilities there are facilities for females
• Facilities for young children and
attendants are provided.
• backstopping/mentoring/mo
nitoring by UAO/SAAO
• observe performance of FF as team and
as individual during FFS
•
• Not yet evaluated
• topics relevant for
participants
• Include both men and women in needs
assessment, visit fields and production
activities of both.
• Modules on household gardening,
nutrition, small livestock and poultry
are found to be highly relevant to
female participants of FFS
. level of content • complexity of content adjusted to level of
participants • This is built into FFS, and requires
monitoring only. During review
workshops problems arising as
discussed and addressed
• experiential learning cycle
applied
• all participants stimulated to be actively
involved in the learning activities
• Constant training of FFs in
participatory approaches and
facilitation skills.
FF training
implemented
• selection of identified new
FF
• select potential candidates based on their
performance and attitude during the FFS
• convince potential candidates of their
capacity
• Ongoing
• invite active FF • invite all FFs (not only 1 of the team) • Done
Skilled and
capable
Upazila
based staff
(AEO/SAAO
) available
• training of new staff in
Season long TOT
• Select the most suitable and motivated
SAAO from the Upazila
• Include 50% female SAAO.
• Encouraging participation of female
officers, and provision of suitable
facilities ongoing.
• refresher courses or other
additional training existing
staff
• include all trained SAAO
On going through crash courses and
orientation courses.
94
Result how achieved specific actions STATUS -
• Backstopped by Regional
MF(MTs)
• MF (MT) to observe SAAO and AEO in
their FFS duties performance MFs may raise any issues with Regional
management but do not have authority
over GOB officers, so the best approach is
a positive and friendly one.
TOT courses
for new
(Non-FFS
trained) DAE
staff (AEO
and SAAO)
implemented
• AEO • Select all available female AEO Female AEO’s are encouraged to attend.
• SAAO • Include 50% female SAAO per Upazila. • This is not possible because of the low
number of SAAOs
• Content
• Methodology (participatory)
• Special attention to topics relevant for
female farmers on which DAE staff need
capacity building
•
• Training facilities • Season long. All participants able to
attend the full course Facilities are being upgraded where
possible.
• In house expertise
• External resource persons
• Knowledgeable on topics relevant for
women
• Experienced in participatory methods and
preferably in FFS
• At least 1 female MF (MT)
• Gender sensitivity and knowledge
considered in recruitment process.
• Initially one female MF was recruited
and as any are replaced all efforts will
be made to find female candidates.
refresher
courses for
existing DAE
staff (AEO
and SAAO)
implemented
• Potential candidates
identified
• All relevant DAE staff to be invited • Not yet done
• Needs assessed • Observation of all candidates in their
daily (extension) work
• Involvement of all candidates in the
needs assessment and encouragement of
women to express their needs.
•
• In house expertise
• External resource persons
• As for training of new DAE staff •
Farmer
Organization
s actively
serving
• training/informing FFS
participants on benefits FO
• FO module compulsory for men and
women. Held at convenient time for both
• FF stimulating women to attend
• Gender quota introduced for BFPs
(50/50)
• Gender quota introduced for FO-level
training (50/50)
95
Result how achieved specific actions STATUS -
members • Gender mainstreamed into curricula
• FOs supported to elect women as chair,
secretary or cashier.
• Focus on women holding cash.
Gender
mainstreame
d by IFM
Component
management
• selection and training of
appropriate staff
• all (potential) staff screened on gender
attitude
• training covering all aspects of gender,
including sexual harassment
• Gender considerations included in
recruitment process
• Capacity building of female FO field
staff
• Gender specific Job
descriptions
• In all job descriptions specific reference
to gender aspects of the duties
• Each staff member to draft a personal
gender action plan
• Done
• Gender has been included in all staff
TORs.
• Gender focal persons appointed
• Gender focal points - full
time at national level,
assignments at
regional/district level
• Designated officer takes task seriously.
• Gender Focal Point not by default a
woman
• Gender focal persons appointed in all
regions and HQ.
• selection and training of
appropriate staff
• when not existing apply 50-50
• if existing: government targets are the
minimum: target higher
• apply special efforts to encourage women
to enroll in agricultural training and
government employment
• Ongoing but facing challenges
• gender perspective in M&E
system
• able to identification of negative gender
effect of program implementation • Ongoing
• gender perspective in
baseline and evaluation
surveys
• key indicators representative to measure
empowerment of women.
• Disaggregated data collection
• Done in base line survey
• Included in all in-house surveys and
data collection.
96