Project Folon

Farmers of the North of our country have to face uncountable barriers and tremendous struggle to earn livelihood. Project Folon (ফলন) is geared towards improving the yield, income and wealth of impoverished farmers living in river deltas of Northern Bangladesh who are frequently affected by natural disasters.

Lack of accurate information regarding modern agricultural practices with regards to farming inputs and challenges (e.g. use of fertilizer and water, steps against pests and diseases), high interest of loans, input unavailability and quality issues, lack of proper market access and large margins of middle men are major obstacles faced by these farmers.

Project Folon (ফলন) has developed a multi-prong approach to address these issues faced by farmers, with access to capital, agricultural training, development of market access and training on personal finances forming the core pillars of our intervention. 

Intervention Plan through Project Folon

• Ensuring the adoption of ideal cash crops such as corn and chili pepper.
• BDT 11000 for cultivating corn and 15000 for chilli pepper provided to a screened group of farmers, with 80% going to farmers directly and 20% covering project related costs.
• Assistance in the form of an agricultural card in lieu of hard cash to prevent misuse, which will be used to buy seeds and fertilizers from trustworthy vendors.
• Setting local agricultural input distributors so that the inputs are available for purchase at the beginning of each crop season.
• Facilitating yield improvement training by specialized trainers
• Conducting financial education training and encouraging savings through a bank account
• Deploying up-to-dated machineries to lessen the cost and physical labor
• Striving to create new market access. 

This is a Zakat eligible project, meeting the criterion in three categories- first, third & sixth. We have successfully implemented three seasons of the project over the last three years & are running the fourth consecutive seasons including 420 more promising farmers. We have extended the operations in Sirajganj as the second project area after Gaibandha.