Keywords
How to Cite
Abstract
The Farmer Information and Advice Centers (FIACs) are currently working to provide one-stop agricultural advisory services, including climate-friendly agriculture, to farming communities in rural Bangladesh, but their role has yet to be explored. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the role of FIACs in providing need-based extension services to the farming communities to create social innovation through transforming smallholders’ agriculture into a farm business in rural Bangladesh. This study was conducted in Kishoreganj district, Bangladesh. The data were collected by questionnaire survey, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions (FGD). Both quantitative and qualitative (Trajectory Equifinality Model, TEM) analysis was applied based on the data obtained. It was found that the local FIAC approaches give farmers easy access to improved agricultural technologies. It is a needs-based service for farming households to improve their farming practices and livelihoods. Second, their resource use efficiency has increased, and their agriculture has diversified. This has improved institutional access on the ground and farmers feel empowered. So, we can call it social innovation. Third, FIAC interventions help farmers to develop farm business. Finally, farmer characteristics such as gender, farm size, farming experience, household income, and local institutional access are significantly positively related to access to FIAC services. Therefore, our policy implications suggest that FIAC should offer a gender-sensitive service approach. However, farmers faced some difficulties in obtaining services from FIAC, they needed more competent staff and female staff.
References
Agricultural Information Service. (2022). Agriculture dairy 2022. Agricultural Information Service, Ministry of Agriculture, The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka.
Van den Ban, A. W., & Samanta, R. K. (2006). Introduction: Agricultural extension in Asian nations, why it needs change! In Changing roles of agricultural extension in Asian nations (pp. 1–22). BR Publishing Corporation.
Baur, P. (2022). When farmers are pulled in too many directions: Comparing institutional drivers of food safety and environmental sus-tainability in California agriculture. In G. Desa & X. Jia (Eds.), Social innovation and sustainability transition (pp. 241–260). Springer Nature
Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18560-1_17
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. (2011). Population and housing census 2011. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka.http://203.112.218.65:8008/WebTestApplication/userfiles/Image/National%20Reports/Population%20%20Housing%20Census%202011.pdf
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. (2016). Report on the household income and expenditure survey 2016. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka. https://bbs.portal.gov.bd/sites/default/files/files/bbs.portal.gov.bd/page/1b1eb817_9325_4354_a756_3d18412203e2/Yearbook-2016-Final-19-06-2017.pdf
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Yearbook of agricultural statistics of Bangladesh 2021. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. (2022). Yearbook of agricultural statistics of Bangladesh 2022. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka. http://203.112.218.65:8008/WebTestApplication/userfiles/Image/latesreport/Yearbook%202022%20(PDF).pdf
Biswas, B., Mallick, B., Roy, A., & Sultana, Z. (2021). Impact of agriculture extension services on technical efficiency of rural paddy farmers in southwest Bangladesh. Environmental Changes, 5, 10026.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2021.100261
Christensen, C. M., Ojomo, E., & Dillon, K. (2019). The prosperity paradox: How innovation can lift nations out of poverty. Harper Business.
Cook, B. R., Satizábal, P., & Curnow, J. (2021). Humanising agricultural extension: A review. World Development, 140,105337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105337
Department of Agricultural Extension. (2018). Agricultural extension manual. Department of Agricultural Extension, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2014). The state of food and agriculture: Innovation in family farming. https://www.fao.org/3/i4040e/i4040e.pdf
French, C. (Ed.). (2022). Building rural community resilience through innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003178552
Islam, M. M., Gray, D., Reid, J., & Kemp, P. (2011). Developing sustainable farmer-led extension groups: Lessons from a Bangladeshi case study. The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 17(5),425–443. https://doi.org/10.1080/1389224X.2011.596658
Khalak, A., Sarker, M. A., & Uddin, M. N. (2018). Farmers’ access to ICT based media in receiving farm information: A grassroots level study from Bangladesh. American Journal of Rural Development, 6(1),14–20 https://doi.org/10.12691/ajrd-6-1-3
Khan, M. S., Rahman, M. H., & Uddin, M. N. (2017). Effectiveness of agricultural information and communication center in technology transfer to the farmers in Bangladesh. Asian Journal of Agricultural Extension, Economics & Sociology, 18(4),1–11. https://doi.org/10.9734/AJAEES/2017/34998
Kiminami, L., Furuzawa, S., & Kiminami, A. (2020). Social entrepreneurship and social business associated with multiple functions of urban agriculture in Japan. Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, 4, 521–552. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41685-020-00154-8
Kiminami, L., & Kiminami, A. (2017). Rural and agriculture development in regional science. In H. Shibusawa et al. (Eds.) Socioeconomic environmental policies and evaluations in regional science. New frontiers in regional science: Asian perspectives, vol 24. (pp. 537–555), Springer.
Mdoda, L., & Mdiya, L. (2022). Factors affecting the using information and communication technologies (ICTs) by livestock farmers in the Eastern Cape province. Cogent Social Sciences, 8(1), 2026017. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2022.2026017
Miah, M. D., Hasan, R., & Uddin, H. (2020). Agricultural development and the rural economy: The case of Bangladesh. In M. K. Barai (Ed.), Bangladesh's economic and social progress (pp. 273–266). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1683-2_8
Mohiuddin, M., Sarker, M. N., Hossain, M. F., Naher, Q., Shahiduzzaman, M., Hossain, M. A., Zahan, T., Ishtiaque, S., & Chaki, A. K. (2022). Four crops based cropping pattern potato-jute-t. aus rice-t. aman rice is a profitable technology in Kishoreganj region. (booklet in
Bengali) OFRD, BARI, Kishoreganj-2300.
Moulaert, F., & MacCallum, D. (2019). Advanced introduction to social innovation. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Parmar, I. S., Soni, P., Salin, K. R., & Kuwornu, J. K. M. (2018). Assessing farmers’ access to ICT and non-ICT sources for agricultural development in Semi-Arid Region in India. Journal of Agricultural Informatics /Agrárinformatika Folyóirat, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.17700/jai.2018.9.2.459
Project Management Unit. (2021). Project Annual Progress Report 2019–2020. National Agricultural Technology Program- Phase II Project (NATP-2). Project Management Unit (PMU), AIC Building (3rd Floor), BARC Complex, Farmgate, Dhaka-1215, Bangladesh. http://www.natp2pmu.gov.bd/sites/default/files/files/natp2pmu.portal.gov.bd/annual_reports/d2bedbfe_8c01_44c7_adb4_bee7e83c17ff/2022-01-20-09-21-b819c3b5806a1133c5863ee228dc9ebd.pdf
Putnam, R. D. (1993). Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400820740
Ragasa, C., & Mazunda, J. (2018). The impact of agricultural extension services in the context of a heavily subsidized input system: The case of Malawi. World Development, 105, 25–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.12.004
Rahman, M. C., Rahaman, M. S., Biswas, J. C., Rahman, N. M. F., Islam, M. A., Sarkar, M. A. R., Islam, M. S., & Maniruzzaman, M. (2022). Climate change and risk scenario in Bangladesh. Asia-Pac J Reg Sci, 7, 381–404. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41685-022-00252-9
Rahman, M. S., Barau, A. A., & Noman, M. R. A. F. (2019). Service delivery effectiveness of farmers’ information and advice centres in Dinajpur Sadar Upazila of Bangladesh. Information Processing in Agriculture, 6(4),462–470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inpa.2019.03.002
Rana, S., Kiminami, L., & Furuzawa, S. (2022a). Entrepreneurship and social innovation for sustainability: Focusing on a haor region of Bangladesh. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7115-0
Rana, S., Kiminami, L., & Furuzawa, S. (2022b). Role of entrepreneurship in regional development in the haor region of Bangladesh: A trajectory equifinality model analysis of local entrepreneurs. Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, 6(3),931–960. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41685-022-00241-y
Rivera, W. M. (2011). Public sector agricultural extension system reform and the challenges ahead. Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 17(2),165–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/1389224X.2011.544457
Santos, S. C., & Neumeyer, X. (2021). Gender, poverty and entrepreneurship: A systematic literature review and future research agenda. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 26(3), 2150081. https://doi.org/10.1142/S1084946721500187
Sarkki, S., Dalla Torre, C., Fransala, J., Živojinović, I., Ludvig, A., Górriz-Mifsud, E., Melnykovych, M., Sfeir, P. R., Arbia, L., Bengoumi, M., Chort, H., Gramm, V., Marco, L. L., Ravazzoli, E., & Nijnik, M. (2021). Reconstructive social innovation cycles in women-led initiatives in rural areas. Sustainability, 13(3), 1231. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031231
Sato, T., Hidaka, T., & Fukuda, M. (2009). Depicting the dynamics of living the life: The Trajectory Equifinality Model. In J. Valsiner, P. Molenaa, M. Lyra, N. Chaudhary (Eds.), Dynamic process methodology in the social and developmental sciences (pp. 217–240). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-95922-1_10
Sato, T., & Valsiner, J. (2010). Time in life and life in time: Between experiencing and accounting. Ritsumeikan Journal of Human Sciences, 20(1),79–92.
Syiem, R., & Raj, S. (2015). Access and usage of ICTs for agriculture and rural development by the tribal farmers in Meghalaya State of North-East India. Journal of Agricultural Informatics, 6(3), 26–41. https://doi.org/10.17700/jai.2015.6.3.190
Torre, Ravazzoli, E., Dijkshoorn-Dekker, M., Polman, N., Melnykovych, M., Pisani, E., Gori, F., Da Re, R., Vicentini, K., & Secco, L. (2020). The Role of agency in the emergence and development of social innovations in rural areas. Analysis of two cases of social farming in Italy and the Netherlands. Sustainability, 12(11), 4440. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114440
Uddin, M. E., Gao, Q., & Rashid, M. M. (2016). Crop Farmers’ willingness to pay for agricultural extension services in Bangladesh: Cases of selected villages in two important agro-ecological zones. Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 22(1), 43–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/1389224X.2014.971826
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2024 Sohel Rana, Md Abdul Halim, Muhammad Mohiuddin, Md. Shajidur Rahman, Md. Masud Rana