Country Report: Click here to download the report submitted at the meeting of the Programme Advisory Committee, November 2001 (pdf file)

Organisation and Funding: In Bangladesh, IPM started in rice in 1981 on a small scale. In 1989 some thrust was given on IPM through FAO’s Inter-Country Program. Based on the success of FAO Inter-country Program, and also to provide IPM training to more field level agricultural extension workers of the Government, NGO personnel and farmers, two projects–Integrated Pest Management project [funded by UNDP] and Strengthening Plant Protection Services (SPPS) project [funded by DANIDA] started in 1996 and 1997 respectively. Both the projects are being executed by the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE). IPM has also become a  component of Command Area Development project funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB). The executing agency of this project is Water Development Board, but the IPM component is being executed by DAE. NGOs like CARE Bangladesh and AID–Comilla have also started their program on IPM. All these projects are mainly working on rice IPM except that the SPPS project is working both on rice and vegetable IPM. The emphasis on vegetable IPM is progressively increasing. Of late CARE also has started work on vegetable IPM.

Training Achievements: Under the three DAE projects a total of 1252 DAE field level staff and 119 NGO staff have been trained through season long training (100-112 days). Up to June 2001 the DAE field level trained people have been able to establish 6200 farmer field schools (FFS) in 244 thanas of 64 districts from which 157,040 farmers received direct training in rice IPM and 1,387997 farmers were given exposure to IPM through field days.

CARE Bangladesh though their NOPEST and INTERFISH projects, developed 1123 trainers who conducted 5091 FFS and trained 127,275 farmers. 8,48,500 farmers were exposed to IPM through field days.

AID-Comilla completed 216 FFS and trained 6,480 farmers and 57,000 farmers were given IPM exposure through field days. AID-Comilla's trainers were trained by DAE-UNDP/FAO IPM project and DAE-DANIDA SPPS project.

Vegetable IPM: In addition to IPM activities in rice, the FAO inter-country program and DAE-DANIDA SPPS project are working also on vegetable IPM in Bangladesh. The FAO inter-country program already conducted two TOTs on vegetables and 62 DAE staff and 2 NGO staff received Season Long Training on Vegetable IPM. The SPPS project until June 2001 conducted 2 TOTs in vegetable IPM and developed 91 DAE and 11 NGO trainers. The SPPS project established 569 FFS on vegetable and 14,414 farmers received direct training on vegetable IPM through the FFS and 153,485 vegetable farmers received IPM exposure through field days. FAO/DAE also established 18 FFS on vegetable IPM.

Development of Farmer Trainers (FTs): The strategy is to identify potential FTs from the regular FFS run by the IPM trained DAE staff. These selected farmers are given a 10 day TOT (FT-TOT). In the following crop season, these FTs will undergo a season-long internship training as facilitators in the FFS to be established by the DAE staff. The internship in the FFS and the TOT will build up the confidence of the FTs, empower them with organisational, managerial and facilitation skills necessary to establish and run FFS by themselves or with minimal supervision from DAE staff. In the next crop season following the FT-TOT and internship, these FTs will establish and run their own FFS called FT-FFS. As the number of FT-FFS increases over the years, the number of DAE-Trainer FFS (DT-FFS) may decrease but the total number of farmers to be trained during the project life will remain about the same as per the original target. Meanwhile UNDP and DANIDA projects have developed 640 and 189 FTs respectively. 

As of June 2001,  a total of 762 FT-FFS have been established by FTs under the UNDP project and trained 19,050 farmers through FT-FFS and the DANIDA SPPS project has established 7 FT-FFS and trained 175 farmers. The DANIDA programme is ongoing and more farmers are in the process of being trained through FT-FFS. 24 IPM clubs have been established by the UNDP project while 120 IPM clubs have been established by the DANIDA SPPS project.

Contact People:

Government:

Name: Emdadul Hoque Khandker
Title: National Project Director
Org: Dept. of Agril. Extension
        DAE–UNDP/FAO IPM Project (BGD/ 95 / 003)
Tel: ( 880 – 2) 912 0867
Fax: ( 880 – 2) 912 0863

DANIDA:

Name: Dr. S. Ramaswamy
Title: Chief Technical Adviser
Org: DAE-DANIDA SPPS Project
Tel: 880-2-9121847, 880-2-815799,
Fax: 880-2-9131373
E-mail: danspps@bdmail.net
Web-site: http://spps.hypermart.net/

Non Government:

Names: Mr. Mike Brewin 
             Mr. Mahbubul Islam Khan
Title: Project Coordinators
Org. CARE International
Tel: ( 880 – 2) 814195-98
E-mail: anrcare@bangla.net
brewin@carebangladesh.org

Name: Rokeya Begum Shafali
Title: IPM Project Director
Org: AID-COMILLA
Tel: (880 - 81) 76137
Fax: (880 - 81) 76137