Feed the Future Bangladesh Rice and Diversified Crops (RDC) Activity FY2020 Quarter 1 Report

The RDC targets 38 interventions across various sectors, including rice, maize, groundnut, mungbean, lentil, sunflower, and sesame, as well as cross-cutting mechanization and financial services. To achieve the target, RDC plans to support firms in providing access to new technologies and improved management practices for smallholder producers through improved availability of seed, seedlings, fertilizer, crop protection products, procurement mechanisms, mechanization, ICT, and access to finance. Gender and nutrition-related activities will underpin these approaches. For FY2020, RDC expects total access outreach to be 277,634, with 9% female and 6% youth participation. At the start of the quarter, RDC had 11 active interventions, which will be concluded in the 2020 financial year. During this quarter, RDC signed six new agreements with companies, including two agreements that will allow companies to scale up and expand activities proven to be successful through previously completed agreements. These agreements are expected to benefit 144,287 farmers, who will gain access to new technologies and lucrative markets for their crop products. The agreements will also support farmers in purchasing seeds of new crop varieties and using nitrogen-fixing rhizobia inoculant and biological crop protection products. Additionally, farmers will gain access to new marketing channels, with 627t seeds of new varieties and crops, 3,020t of crops sold through new marketing channels, 22t of inoculant, 400t organic fertilizer, and 3.5t crop protection products. Furthermore, 10,000 producers will receive mechanization services through the hire of planting and harvesting services provided by local service providers, who have purchased 4 combine harvesters and 4 rice transplanters from partner companies. Seven thousand five hundred producers will receive crop production and marketing advice when they purchase inputs from smartphone-based Apps operated by input companies, input dealers, or retailers. As a result of RDC support in Q1 of FY2020, several achievements were recorded, including the sale of 23.6t crop protection products to 4,150 farmers by ACCL, the sale of 64t rice seed to 4,037 farmers by METAL SEEDS, and the sale of 21 combine harvesters and 2 rice transplanters by Metal Pvt Ltd, which will give 14,706 farmers access to fully mechanized planting and harvesting services. Additionally, ACI Seeds established 31 seedling growers who will grow new high-yield potential rice varieties and hybrids and sell quality seedlings to farmers in the Boro rice transplanting season.