Representatives from the US Embassy, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) on Thursday launched the five-year, $35 million Feed the Future Bangladesh Climate Smart Agriculture Activity to help Bangladeshi farmers mitigate climate impacts and increase their production.

With U.S. government funding via the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the IFDC will collaborate with the Ministry of Agriculture to teach smallholder farmers in southern districts of the country to adopt climate-smart cultivation techniques like using improved seeds and maximizing fertilizer usage.

The project will also bring together private sector firms, agri-input service providers, and public sector actors to build resilience throughout the sector using climate-smart technologies and practices.

Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Wahida Akter joined Dr. Muhammad Khan, USAID/Bangladesh’s Director of Economic Growth Programs, Henk van Duijn, President and CEO of IFDC, and Dr. Shaikh Mohammad Bokhtiar, Executive Chairman of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) and unveiled the new project at the BARC auditorium, UNB reports.

In addition to addressing climate change, the Feed the Future Climate-Smart Agriculture project will help Bangladesh overcome challenges stemming from the global COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine.  

The project will also save fertilizer use by farmers, save fertilizer subsidy costs, and increase the overall production of crops.

The U.S. government has provided more than $8 billion in development assistance to Bangladesh since its independence.  

Last year alone, USAID funding included $200 million to improve the lives of people in Bangladesh through programs that expand food security and economic opportunity, improve health and education, promote democratic institutions and practices, protect the environment, and increase resilience to climate change.