National Agricultural Technology Programme - Phase II Project

The overall goal of the National Agricultural Technology programme is to increase income and reduce extreme poverty and hunger by improving agricultural technology development and support the development of the agriculture, fisheries and livestock sector. In its second phase, it will incorporate climate-smart technologies and improve market linkages through:

• Demand-driven agricultural research
• Integration of technology generation, technology transfer, practical application at farm and market level
• Agriculture extension for crop, livestock and fisheries farmers
• Farm-to-farm extension
• Agro-business and agro-processing development
• Collaboration with private-sector service providers

NATP-II will cover 57 of the country's 64 districts and span a broad range of agro ecological zones across Bangladesh. It is estimated that over 1 million farming households will directly benefit from project activities.

In Bangladesh, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty in rural areas is still three times higher than in urban areas. Poverty reduction in rural areas depends crucially on growth in agricultural productivity, which is driven by investment in infrastructure, the generation of new or improved technologies adapted to the changing climate, and their adoption by farmers and others in the supply chain.