Press Release

On March 08, 2021, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a Record of Discussions with the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh in Dhaka on "The Market-Oriented Agriculture Promotion Project for Smallholder Horticulture Farmers through Multi-stakeholder Partnership (Bangla-SHEP)".

Mr. Yasuhiro Kawazoe, Senior Representative of JICA Bangladesh Office, Mr. Md. Asadullah, Director General of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Ministry of Agriculture and Mr. Muhammad Ashraf Ali Faruk, Joint Secretary, Economic Relations Division signed the Record of Discussions to implement the project for 3.5 years.

The project aims at developing Bangla-SHEP extension package to improve smallholder livelihoods. The SHEP approach was developed by JICA at first in Kenya with the concept of "Market-Oriented Agriculture" to convert farmer's mind from "Grow and Sell" to "Grow to Sell". This approach has been implemented more than 25 countries worldwide right now.

In Bangladesh, through the multi-stakeholders participation from government agencies, financial institutions, private companies, and NGOs, the SHEP approach for Bangladesh called "Bangla-SHEP" will be developed for the benefit of smallholder horticulture farmers of the country.

The project will contribute to the achievement of SDGs Goal 1(No poverty) and Goal 2 (Zero hunger).