Outcome harvest: influencing systemic changes in agricultural market systems in south west Bangladesh

USAID's Feed the Future (FTF) Bangladesh Rice and Diversified Crops Activity worked to increase incomes and improve food security and nutrition in the 22 southern Bangladeshi districts from 2016-2021.

The programme aimed to increase incomes and improve food security by promoting systemic market changes to encourage diversified farming systems, including intensified rice production and the introduction of higher-value crops.

The RDC Activity aimed to reach 500,000 farmers, achieving a 50 per cent expansion of commercial production and post-harvest inputs and services, as well as commercial procurement by collaborating companies.

• Read the blog: Using market-based approaches to respond to shocks: insights from Bangladesh
• Watch the May 2022 BEAM webinar Responding to shocks using market-based approaches: insights from RDC Bangladesh

Intervention description

The RDC Activity focused on interventions aimed at increasing incomes and improving food security and nutrition in southern Bangladesh. Specific activities included promoting mechanisation services, supporting financial services outreach to rural areas, and creating demand for zinc rice varieties.

The project partnered with various local firms such as Ali Seeds, KONIKA Seeds, and Ujirpur Organic Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited (UOMCSL). These partners adopted business models promoted by the RDC Activity, including premium rice production, crop pest protection, mechanisation services, and agent banking. For instance, Ali Seeds increased production and sales of zinc rice seed from 50-60 MT before the RDC support to 130-140 MT in 2020-21, demonstrating successful adoption and scaling of the intervention.

Evidence methodology

The methodology used for this report is the Outcome Harvest (OH) approach, which is well-suited to detecting, validating and tracing systemic outcomes.

The OH process involved two phases: harvesting preliminary outcomes through literature reviews and in-depth interviews, followed by substantiating and investigating these outcomes with additional interviews.

The OH methodology included 65 interviews with various stakeholders and a comprehensive review of collected data to ensure the validity and reliability of the outcomes identified. Limitations included challenges in conducting in-person interviews due to COVID-19 and the inherent constraints of qualitative research.