|
 Expanding
On-Farm Income Generation
With 85% of Bangladesh's 69 million poor people living in
rural areas and the majority of rural employment related
in some way to agriculture, it is logical that
improvements in the production practices of small farmers
would have the potential to greatly improve the lives of
many marginalized people. To realize a more profitable
existence for smallholders, IDE works to develop
technologies and practices that help these producers get
the most from their limited land and labor resources. In
the past, these efforts have focused on developing and
encouraging the use of technologies that improve farmers'
access to and control over water since deficiencies in
these aspects of production are often the greatest
limitations faced by smallholders seeking increased
production. With all these technologies, IDE worked to
ensure that the increased profits resulting during their
first year of use would be sufficient to cover the entire
cost of the technology. In this way the technology would
be affordable to small farmers. IDE also encouraged
private entrepreneurs to distribute the products and the
skills and parts needed to maintain them so that the
growth of these technologies could be sustainable after
IDE's exist from the market.
Today IDE is looking for new ways to increase farmers'
earnings while building on its past successes with
technology development. Increasing farmer knowledge about
all aspects of high value specialty crop production
appears to be one intervention with great potential for
increasing the income of small farmers. To learn more
about these IDE-B's work in these areas, please follow the
links at left. |
