Significant progress has been made in the Ministry of Agriculture’s partner project aimed at transforming the country’s agriculture into a modern, commercial and technology-based sector in line with the developed world. The project is working on bringing farmers under the ambit of digital services, good agricultural practices, safe food, research, agricultural product exports and the spread of climate-resilient technologies.
The Program on Agricultural and Rural Transformation for Nutrition, Entrepreneurship and Resilience in Bangladesh (PARTNERS) project, which began in July 2023, has made about 47 percent overall progress as of June this year against the planned outcomes.
The total cost of the project, which is being implemented under the Ministry of Agriculture, is around 6,911 crore taka. The project, funded by the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of Bangladesh, involves seven government agencies, including the Department of Agricultural Extension. The project activities are being implemented in 64 districts and 495 upazilas of 14 agricultural regions of the country.
The project aims to establish 28,597 field schools. Out of these, about 18,500 are operational. Out of 20,000 batches of training for farmers on good agricultural practices, about 4,500 have been completed. Out of 30 training batches for agricultural extension officers on this subject, 27 have been completed. Out of 112 national and regional level workshops, 31 have been held.
One of the major initiatives of the project is the Farmers Card. There are plans to bring 1 million farmers under the card by August this year and 4.7 million farmers within this year. Already, a database of about 1.4 million farmers has been prepared in the experimental stage. There are plans to bring all the farmers of the country under this card in phases.
Agriculture Ministry officials say that the Krishak Card will play an important role in facilitating the delivery of subsidies, loans, incentives and other government benefits to farmers. There are plans to provide international debit cards to farmers through Sonali, Janata and Bangladesh Krishi Bank.
In this regard, Abul Kalam Azad, coordinator of the partner project, said, “The progress of the partner project being implemented to modernize and transform the agricultural sector cannot be evaluated only by the cost rate. The progress of this project is considered on the basis of achieving the targets set by the World Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). As such, the overall progress of the project as of last June is about 47 percent.”
He said, the financing system of the partner project is results-based. Such a financing system has not been implemented in the agricultural sector of Bangladesh before. The money is released only after verifying the evidence of achieving the set results of the development partners.
The loan agreement between the World Bank and IFAD for this five-year project, which runs from July 2023 to June 2028, is worth US$543 million. A demand for a discount of US$252.71 million has been raised against the cumulative results of the project up to June 2026. That is, a demand for an amount equivalent to about 47 percent of the total amount of the agreement has been raised.
Coordinator Abul Kalam said that a total of 24 result-based targets have been set under the project under 10 linkage indicators for disbursement. The project submits certificates of achievement against these targets. Later, an independent verification agency verifies them. After verification, funds are released to development partners at the prescribed rate. However, to achieve some targets, the project’s Development Project Proposal (DPP) needs to be amended.
One of these is to provide digital agricultural services to 5 million farmers through Krishak Cards. In addition, there are targets such as bringing about 1 million farmers and farms under certification on 300,000 hectares of land under good agricultural practices, establishing accredited laboratories, and continuously increasing the budget of registered institutions by 10 percent every year.
He said that these issues were reviewed during the joint mid-term review mission of the World Bank and IFAD from June 1 to 23. There, both sides agreed to revise the DPP and redefine some targets.
The coordinator said that other activities outside the target set by the development partners, especially infrastructure and physical construction work, cannot be started without amending the DPP. The process of amendment is currently underway. Spending the project money without amendment may create complications with the release of funds later. He expressed hope that once the DPP amendment is completed, it will be possible to complete other activities of the project within the stipulated time.
