Advocacy for Sustainability in Agricultural Development (ASAD) started its journey with the vision to help local food producers and businesses in Bangladesh’s coastal belt understand the urgency to respond to climate change adaptation techniques.
The project was initiated in August 2021 to address two of the major urgencies in the sector:
- Water, Sanitation & Hygiene practices in the agriculture & food sector.
- Sustainable solutions for a resilient agricultural value-chain in Bangladesh.
By April 2021, the project reached national agricultural experts, government officers and service providers with its vision to positively impact agricultural stakeholders in Bangladesh’s coastal belt, and recruited 18 energetic youths to volunteer for the project’s social action.
Amidst the covid19 surge, ASAD initiated a knowledge-sharing platform between agricultural stakeholders, researchers and service providers in Bangladesh. The project conducted two capacity-building campaigns where it facilitated 21 thematic sessions with 15 guest speakers on sustainable methods and available solutions in Bangladesh’s food and agricultural sector.
48 participants joined the discussions virtually representing the segmented group as below:
- Businesses/employees in the food and agricultural sector.
- Aged 18-35 community mobilisers and social volunteers.
- Members of agricultural cooperatives in coastal areas of Bangladesh.
- Community service providers / agricultural on-field trainers in the Barisal division.
In the second campaign that ended on 13th September 2021, committee representatives from four of the farmers’ cooperatives under the Integrated Agricultural Productivity Project (IAPP) in Barisal division, agricultural community mobilisers/trainers from Upazila Agriculture Office, Palli Sanchay Bank and District Livestock Office in Dumki and Patuakhali upazila joined in as participants.
More than 60 individuals participated in the capacity-building campaigns representing either social youth organizations, local food businesses or cooperatives. They shared their experiences and challenges with guest speakers from public universities, local government service providers and micro-finance organizations in the Barisal division (south-central Bangladesh).
Until now, initiating the platform to share dialogues has created a chance to accelerate sustainable solutions at a local level. And also sighted a scope for cooperation between farmers, educators and service providers within the targeted region as 84% of the participants responded that they will definitely share the knowledge learnt with their own communities.
The project was supported by Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC) and Peace First. To learn more about the project, kindly log on to: https://asadyouth.com/
