Integrated Coastal Farming Systems for Resilient Livelihoods

Project Background

Crop production is the primary income source for Bangladesh's farming households, yet homestead vegetables, fruits, agroforestry, and off-farm activities significantly enhance income, nutrition, and daily livelihoods—especially in coastal ecosystems where land, water, labor, and byproducts create synergies across components.
However, coastal farmers often stick to traditional varieties and fragmented practices, constrained by limited knowledge, access to high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds/inputs, crop management skills, and market linkages; this hampers productivity, resilience, and homestead/agroforestry benefits. The project promotes integrated farming systems incorporating HYV crops and improved technologies into existing coastal setups, combining technical innovation, farmer training, local services, and peer exchanges to boost total productivity, income, nutrition, and women's roles in farm/off-farm activities.

Project Scope & Reach

Coastal Bangladesh (e.g., Patuakhali, Satkhira, other semi-lowland areas); small/medium farm households relying on field crops, homestead gardens, trees, livestock, off-farm work; systems integrating HYV crops, vegetables, fruits, trees, gender-responsive tech for productivity and risk diversification.

Key research partners

Global Development Research Institute (GDRI); DAE field offices/extension staff; NARS programs (crops, horticulture, agroforestry); lead national agricultural research institute/DAE farming systems unit.

Funding & Support

Public sector/development partner funds for farming systems research, climate-resilient agriculture, coastal livelihoods; covers tech design/testing, farmer training, local services, adoption/impact assessments for scale-up.

Roles of GDRI

Capacity Development and Intervention Design: Support adaptation of HYV, homestead, agroforestry, nutrition-sensitive, gender-responsive tech to coastal conditions; design farmer-friendly training materials, extension tools, modules.
Field Implementation and Community Engagement: Coordinate with DAE, NARS, NGOs, farmer groups for tech/models rollout; select farmers/villages, conduct baseline/follow-up surveys/monitoring; facilitate farmer-to-farmer learning, seed/seedling exchange, women/youth participation.
Data Management, Cleaning, and Analysis: Manage collection on production, income, nutrition, gender/livelihood indicators with quality/reliability; analyze impacts on productivity, income, nutrition, socio-economics; prepare reports/briefs, disseminate via events with government/partners/practitioners.