Voices of Change brings you stories that are representative of the wide range of Katalyst’s work across Bangladesh. The project uses the market development approach, which is an indirect way of working to change the existing market systems as a means to benefit the poor people. In these stories, the beneficiaries share with you the constraints they faced as well as the solutions they found to bring about radical changes in their lives.
In 2014-2016, Katalyst project and the Bangladesh Crop Protection Association (BCPA) extended their work by training farmers, women, retailers and pesticide spray men on the safe and judicious use of pesticides (SUP). This initiative improved the ability of farmers to select the right types of pesticide, and to use them appropriately with the correct dosage.
Katalyst project has been facilitating awareness raising on the importance of balanced fertiliser application in Bangladesh since 2006.
Earlier high-value Tilapia, Koi and Pangus fry are mostly bought by lead farmers only while small farmers use low-yielding local species. A breakthrough was reached during Phase 2 of the Katalyst project, when hatcheries started marketing high-yielding fish fingerlings to small farmers. The promotion included pond management and cultivation improvements that further increased farmers’ productivity.
The ‘Licensing Fish Brood Import’ mini case study shows how Katalyst facilitated the linkage between local hatcheries and international brood sources and together with the Department of Fisheries established a standard operational procedure for brood import
Often, farmers excessively use chemical pesticides with detrimental effects on environmental and human health.The ‘Commercialising Bio-Pesticides in Bangladesh’ mini case study explains how the Katalyst project and private sector partner Ispahani Agro Ltd. formulated a policy recommendation on the amendment of the 1985 Pesticide Act to make the proper registration and marketing of “Bio-Pesticides” possible, allowing companies to market and distribute IPM products to a mass audience.
The case studies use a framework developed jointly by Katalyst project and Springfield Centre to capture changes of market systems supported by the project. They describe developments in input markets of vegetable, farmed fish and in the maize production and how they contribute to an inclusive economic growth with benefits for small and poor farmers and for private companies in Bangladesh.
Building on this potential, Katalyst’s Women’s Economic Empowement (WEE) sector designed an intervention to provide training in modern prawn cultivation techniques and input and create linkages between feed and aqua-chemical companies with women prawn farmers of the Jessore-Khulna Bagerhat Satkhira Narail belt. Through this intervention, 22,170 women farmers have improved access to quality inputs and relevant know-how.
Urban agriculture contributes to local economic development, poverty alleviation, the social inclusion of the urban poor and women, as well as to the greening of the city and the productive reuse of urban wastes. Urban agriculture encompasses a wide variety of production systems in both urban as well as peri-urban areas. This study examines the contribution of urban agriculture to livelihoods, food security, health, and the urban environment through an assessment of existing urban agriculture activities among poor households in four selected cities.
The agribusiness incubator in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India is the result of a partnership between the Indian government and an international crop-research organization that is a member of CGIAR, a global partnership of organizations seeking a food-secure future. As the incubator has developed, it has become relatively independent of its founders, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Indian government s Department of Science and Technology.