The United States (US) will provide 35 million US dollar to help Bangladeshi farmers mitigate climate impacts and increase their production.
The support will be provided under a five-year “Feed the Future Climate-Smart Agriculture Project” to be implemented by the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) in collaboration with the Bangladesh Agriculture Ministry.
With US government funding via the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the project will teach smallholder farmers in Bangladesh’s southern districts to adopt climate-smart cultivation techniques using improved seeds and maximizing fertilizer usage.
The project will also bring together private sector firms, agri-input service providers, and the public sector to build resilience throughout the sector using climate-smart technologies and practices.
Agriculture secretary Wahida Akter, USAID Bangladesh’s Director of Economic Growth Programs Dr. Muhammad Khan, President and CEO of IFDC Henk van Duijn and Executive Chairman of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) Dr. Shaikh Mohammad Bokhtiar unveiled the new project at the BARC Auditorium today.
In addition to addressing climate change, the Feed the Future Climate-Smart Agriculture project will help Bangladesh overcome challenges stemming from the global COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The project will also save fertilizer use by farmers, save fertilizer subsidy costs, and increase the overall production of crops.
The US government has provided more than $8 billion in development assistance to Bangladesh since its independence.
Last year alone, USAID funding included 200 million US dollars to improve the lives of people in Bangladesh through programs that expand food security and economic opportunity, improve health and education, promote democratic institutions and practices, protect the environment, and increase resilience to climate change.
