🚀 Project Goals:
To contribute to the sustainable increase of income, food security, and nutrition among marginal and small farmers and micro-entrepreneurs across selected value chains.
🚀 Project Development Objectives:
To increase farmers’ income and livelihood through the sustainable growth of selected rural commodity value chains, focusing on comparative advantage, market demand, growth potential, and strong backward linkages to small farmers and micro-entrepreneurs.
🚀 Key Activities and Methodology:
A baseline survey was conducted in April-May 2022 across Savar and Keraniganj (Dhaka District) and Singair (Manikganj District) to establish a benchmark for evaluating project impact.
The survey involved interviews with 399 farmers, including 370 project beneficiaries and 29 non-respondents, using structured questionnaires.
• Qualitative data was gathered through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) to supplement quantitative findings.
• A stratified sampling technique was employed to select beneficiary farmers across districts, upazilas, villages, and farmers’ groups. Simple random sampling was used at the farmers’ group level.
• Interviews were also conducted with Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officers (SAAOs), input sellers, and output buyers to gather information on market infrastructure, finance access, processing, transportation, and market linkages.
• Data was collected using Google Forms and analyzed with Excel Data Analyzer, resulting in tables, charts, and descriptive statistics.
🚀 Rationale and Objectives:
• The baseline study assessed the current status of vegetable productivity, technology adoption, farmer income, and agricultural product processing and marketing.
• The overall objective was to establish a baseline for the project’s impact, allowing for future end-line comparisons to quantify changes resulting from project interventions.