Agricultural value chains in Bangladesh

About the project

Country: Bangladesh

Period: January 2016 – June 2016, and February 2017 – June 2018

Project partner: DAI on behalf of the USAID Feed the Future Initiative

Objective: To support DAI’s activities under USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative, the GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat worked to promote responsible farming practices and strengthen agricultural value chains in Bangladesh.

Approach: The project followed a two-phased approach. The first phase included a GLOBALG.A.P. Capacity Building and Farm Assurer* Workshop and a pre-audit farm assessment of a farm cooperative, including general recommendations of corrective actions for steps towards obtaining GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) certification.  A scoping mission was also conducted to raise the general Bangladeshi market awareness of – and introduce market participants to – the GLOBALG.A.P. system and solutions.

The second phase of the project included additional GLOBALG.A.P. capacity building and Farm Assurer workshops, a Quality Management System (QMS) training, a GLOBALG.A.P. TOUR stop, as well as a localg.a.p. program in Bangladesh and translation of various standard documents into Bengali to support farmer groups in achieving GLOBALG.A.P. certification.  

SDGs addressed: #3 Good health and well-being, #8 decent work and economic growth, and #17partnerships for the goals

*The GLOBALG.A.P. Farm Assurer program was succeeded by the Registered Trainer program in 2022.

Project outcome

Overall, the project tackled challenges by raising awareness among the agri-food market participants, increasing capacities of technical experts, providing educational materials, and supporting certification locally, as well as rendering import processes to Europe more transparent.

The TOUR stop brought together local stakeholders and increased awareness for food safety among a broader audience. A visit to Germany with a delegation from different parts of the food sector provided insights into import processes to Europe, retail requirements for food quality and safety, and the role of certification. Existing normative and educational materials were translated into Bengali to facilitate working with the GLOBALG.A.P. standard, such as the G.A.P. in Action video on Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

A total of 56 agronomists and other technical experts were trained in GLOBALG.A.P. capacity building and Farm Assurer workshops on IFA for fruit and vegetables. Furthermore, 18 of them were trained on the GLOBALG.A.P. QMS, which enables them to guide producer groups in establishing their own internal control systems. By the end of the project, four local consultants had joined the GLOBALG.A.P. Farm Assurers program, ready to support local farmers in their audit preparations.

Local retailer Shwapno joined the mission to improve agricultural practices through private sector incentives, becoming the first GLOBALG.A.P. Community Member in Bangladesh. Shwapno is eager to continuously improve the quality and safety of their products.

The project further facilitated a cooperation between GLOBALG.A.P. and the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce, who set up a GLOBALG.A.P. certification helpdesk with a local Farm Assurer to provide technical support to their members. GLOBALG.A.P. is confident that the extensive collaboration, if combined with complementary measures such as infrastructure expansion, provides solid groundwork for gradually overcoming shortcomings of the Bangladeshi agri-food system.