Farmers in coastal Bangladesh often struggle to make ends meet, because cropping is hampered by poor water control in the polders both at the community level and at sluice level. To improve water control, community-based Water Management Groups (WMGs) are essential.
MetaMeta in partnership with the international NGO Access Agriculture and local NGO JJS have launched the ‘Accelerating Horizontal Learning in Bangladesh Polders’ project to help unlock the high potential of agriculture in coastal areas using ICT tools through the WMGs, champion farmers and experienced extension workers. This project is funded by the Blue Gold Innovation Fund and will last for eighteen months.
It is expected that this innovative project, covering ten polders in southwest Bangladesh, will strengthen and accelerate agricultural learning by:
- training WMGs to produce short videos to capture and disseminate good practices;
- setting up a Horizontal Learning Platform to facilitate the dissemination; and
- organising competitions as incentives for farmers to join the process.
With more and better quality information available, farmers will be better equipped to take collective action, improve their productivity, identify business opportunities and boost their incomes. As part of this project, the Agtube video platform will serve as a repository of the locally produced videos and serve as an active social media exchange platform to facilitate farmer-to-farmer learning during and after the project.
