Founded in 1966, as ITDG (the Intermediate Technology Development Group), Practical Action was a new foundation partner for 2007, and one we are really excited about.

Our funding will support a three year project in the districts of Faridpur and Jamalpur in Bangladesh. It will pay for two Rural Technology Centres (RTCs), helping 7,500 farming families to build their skills and overcome the regular risk of malnutrition.

Technologies to improve production and reduce poverty have existed at the international and national levels, but have not been accessible to small rural farmers thus far. These centres will be the first of their kind in Bangladesh, providing an opportunity to learn about improved and appropriate farming technologies, food processing, and providing regular access to key IT services.

Practical Action's approach is simple yet unique: find out what people are doing and help them to do it better.

They started working in Bangladesh in the early 1980s in response to requests from a number of prominent national NGOs. It works using technology to challenge poverty in a flexible way; ensuring it is responsive to local conditions and needs, and that poor people have a say in what, and how, technologies are developed.

Agriculture remains the backbone of the Bangladesh economy and forms a crucial part of the challenge to reduce rural poverty and achieve economic growth for individual communities.

Practical Action is therefore working with poor, small-scale farmers, providing technical support to help improve their productivity, income and ability to meet the nutritional needs of their families.

Our funding will support two Rural Technology Centres, (RTCs), for three years, in the districts of Faridpur and Jamalpur. Each centre will be operated and managed by local partner organisations.

As with all projects we support, sustainability is a key factor and RTCs are essential to sustaining the use of improved technologies, greater production and food security beyond the duration of the project. Both RTCs are to be housed within the buildings of trusted, local organisations which have a long-term reputation for providing other community services.

Objectives Update : August '07

Since February 2007, 750 farm families have been identified and surveyed to get a sense of which services, to be housed at the RTCs, will be of most value. Both female and male farmers have since developed joint action plans on improving seed production and marketing, which will be implemented in the coming months.

The visibility of the RTCs within the local communities is rising rapidly. This is, in part, due to promotional activities such as signboards being put up and leaflets about the RTCs (printed in Bangla) being distributed. The whole community is benefiting. Farmers are visiting for quality seed, marginalised women for information on low-cost income generating activities, and students for ICT services.

The centres are also making an impact beyond the local community: in just 8 months, 130 staff from local organisations, district government administration and extension services have paid a visit.

More specifically, the project has achieved the following:

• A venue for the RTC has been provided.
• 119 farmers (75 male and 44 female) received training on food processing, improving fruit/vegetable production, the characteristics of good seed and improving goat and poultry rearing.
• 318 farmers procured quality vegetable and fruit seeds, jute seed and rice seed.
• 39 local organisation staff received information on farming techniques.
• Local organisations rented the RTCs' mini-conference rooms on seven occasions and organised training for 152 farmers.
• To enable the RTCs to continue to supply low-cost, high quality seeds during the coming year and beyond, a comprehensive seed marketing plan has been developed.

Next steps

Farmers have reported that production of summer vegetables, jute and boro rice has increased by between 15-22% with quality seed from the RTCs. This has, in turn, reduced food insecurity of the poorer farming families.

We are really pleased so much has been achieved already, but there is still much more to do. The next phase hopes to provide common fishery materials (such as dolomite lime and fish feed) and secure livestock and poultry drugs to sell to rural technology trainers.

On the skills based side, they also hope to introduce ICT training for educated unemployed young people, collect information from local organisations, research institutions and private companies, source mobile phone services and install internet access and provide more training for RTC staff.

August 2007 Floods

The floods which hit Asia in late July and early August 2007 were of a magnitude not witnessed for decades. Many hundreds of people lost their lives and hundreds of thousands of families lost their homes and livelihoods. The floods hit hardest those families already living in abject poverty and the districts of Jamalpur and Faradpur, in which the project is active, did not escape.

As the project had already helped to increase the income and nutritional status of local families, there was no severe food crisis amongst the small-scale farmers during or after the flooding. However, a number of families involved in the project were displaced and some of the crops which they had been supported in growing were destroyed.

Practical Action has an acute awareness of the growing frequency and intensity of such disasters as the climate changes, and this has informed their decision to 'climate-proof' all of their programmes. The project had therefore, from its early stages, put flood resistant measures in place:

• Many small-scale farmers have been growing flood-friendly rice varieties, such as Tulshimala, Kalzira and Gianza, which have been introduced to the area through the project.
• Farmers involved in rearing fish had been trained in how to protect their fish during times of flooding (using flat bars made from bamboo and netting).
• Seedlings have been planted on areas of higher ground, such as fertile strips of land along roadsides.
• The livestock and poultry disease management campaigns (which are part of the project) prevented cattle, goats, sheep and poultry from contracting infectious diseases and helped to control the mortality of livestock in project areas.
• Silage preservation techniques, which the project has trained farmers in, helped to ensure that fodder was not destroyed during the flooding.

We will update you as we get any more reports from the ground on this.

Altaf Islam

Altaf Islam is a small farmer living with eight family members, in the village of Mazalia in Jamalpur.

Rice is the staple food in the area, which Altaf was previously only able to produce for seven months of the year. For the remaining five months, he and his family were short of food. Altaf lacked access to the tools and the training to maximise the amount of rice he produced. As a result, his rice harvest was only some 60% of potential yield.

Considering his family's need for food and Altaf's interest and enthusiasm, the project selected him as one of the farmers to receive training. He was supplied with the recommended doses of seed and organic fertilisers, and provided his own cow dung. Altaf then established a demonstration plot on 0.30 acres of leased land.

Initially, some neighbours discouraged him from what seemed a risky venture which could end in failure. However, with technical assistance from the project and 'learning by doing', Altaf's confidence soon grew.

He tells us that the cost of rice production is some Tk.670 less per acre compared with his earlier farming. He is also using pest management techniques which are environmentally friendly. Altaf's first harvest on the demonstration plot generated 675 kg of paddy rice which is 150 kg more than his previous rice production record. Out of the 675 kg, Altaf preserved 40 kg as seed for next year's production, sold 75 kg and kept the remaining 560 kg to ensure that his family's food needs were met.

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