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FAO provided sustained support to Bangladesh’s agriculture sector over the years. The country, which has already dramatically reduced its poverty rate, was highlighted by FAO as a country of focus for scaling up investments in food and agriculture. Bangladesh has since received substantial policy and programme support from the FAO regional office for Asia and the Pacific, the FAO country office and FAO technical experts in investment, animal health and production, crops, fisheries and nutrition.

In 2018 alone, FAO helped leverage a sizable USD 1.2 billion in investment and grant financing for five projects in the country. These investments enable the country to scale up technical innovations on everything from nutrition, food safety and water management to livestock, fisheries and value chain development.

A seven-year, USD 578 million World Bank-funded project is improving the productivity, market participation, risk management and resilience of smallholder farmers and agro-entrepreneurs working in cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat and poultry systems. Another World Bank-funded project is stimulating sustainable economic growth through better management of Bangladesh’s coastal and marine fishery resources. The USD 282 million project is focusing on such elements as good governance, nutrition, sustainable livelihoods and community empowerment.

And the World Bank’s USD 179 million project on sustainable forests and livelihoods is exploring alternative ways for Bangladesh’s forest-dependent communities to earn income while also promoting better forestry management. FAO worked closely with IFAD to design a project to make farming in Bangladesh more profitable through the production and marketing of high-value crops and climate-smart water management. Within the USD 111 million project, co-financed by IFAD, the Government allocated USD 3 million to FAO for technical assistance in building capacity to ensure the most efficient use of resources.

Finally, improving Bangladeshi farmers’ access to value chain services, markets, technical knowledge and finance is the focus of a new USD 2.5 million project by FAO and the Government of Bangladesh. It is funded through the MMI – a GAFSP pilot scheme to stimulate greater investment along agricultural value chains and to reach small-scale farmers and their organizations more directly.