The overall objective of the longer term program (NATP in three phases over 15 years) is to support the strategy of the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) to improve national agricultural productivity, market linkage and farm income, with a particular focus on small, marginal and female farmers. TheProject Development Objective (PDO) of National Agricultural Technology Program – Phase II Project (NATP-2) is to increase agricultural productivity of smallholder farms and improve smallholder farmers’ access to markets in selected districts.
NATP-2 will promote an integrated approach to leverage ICT to ensure linkages between the various components and stakeholders. ICT within the project will be harmonized to align with ongoing national ICT initiatives under Digital Bangladesh. This entails that the project will utilize common standards, delivery platforms, connectivity, Data Centre facilities, and use of the GOB cloud – to leverage synergies and reduce duplication. The building of an Agriculture Knowledge Repository (AKR) and a Knowledge platform to disseminate this knowledge will be important ICT initiatives under the NATP-2 project.
The project development objective (PDO) of NATP-2 will be achieved through: a) strengthening the capacity of research, extension services and farmers to generate, adopt and diffuse agricultural technologies aimed at increasing farm productivity and reducing post-harvest losses; and b) promoting the sustainability of existing and newly created farmer groups and producer organizations by facilitating their stronger participation in commodity value chain, market-linkages, and improving their knowledge and skill base. Thus, the PDO will be achieved through the generation and release of more productive and locally adapted technologies, enhancing availability of quality seeds/ breeds/ fingerlings/ breeding materials at the small farm level and providing relevant production, value addition, food safety and marketing support.